Abstract
In an online anonymous study we compared 2409 contemplative practitioners to 450 non-meditators on measures of psychological functioning. The meditators followed five traditions: Tibetan and Theravada Buddhism, Centering Prayer, Yoga and Mindfulness. Meditators were lower in depression, neuroticism, empathic distress, and types of empathy-based guilt, and higher in empathy (cognitive and emotional), agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, resilience, and compassionate altruism towards strangers. Comparing traditions found Tibetans and Centering Prayer higher in altruism towards strangers and Centering Prayer lower in neuroticism. In all traditions, intensity and duration of practice predicted positive outcomes. Meditators whose goal was benefit to others, compared to those whose goal was benefit to the self, were lower in depression, empathic distress, and neuroticism, and higher in cognitive empathy, resilience, and altruism towards strangers. Religion-based practitioners were lower in guilt, empathic distress, depression and neuroticism, and higher in conscientiousness, resilience, and altruism towards others compared secular meditators.
Highlights
Meditation, or “contemplative practice” often referred to as mindfulness, is rapidly spreading in Western cultures, as many adopt it as a method of stress reduction
We first compared the full sample of contemplative practitioners to the general population sample on traits related to empathy, guilt, depression (CESD), and the Big Five personality factors
The contemplatives were significantly lower on depression, empathic distress, altruism to friends, neuroticism and omnipotent responsibility guilt
Summary
Meditation, or “contemplative practice” often referred to as mindfulness, is rapidly spreading in Western cultures, as many adopt it as a method of stress reduction. In the past decade these pioneers have been joined by multiple teams of scientists in studying the beneficial effects of contemplative practices on biological and psychological systems, using measurable outcomes, including reduced stress, positive physiological and neurological changes, measured using fMRI and EEGs, changes in personality, and in vulnerability to mental disorders (Lutz, Brefczynski-Lewis, Johnstone, & Davison, 2008; Lutz, Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson, 2008) Contemplative practices such as mindfulness-based meditation, the relaxation response, and compassion meditation have demonstrated a significant association with improved immune function (Benson, Beary, & Carol, 1974; Davidson et al, 2003), reduced blood pressure and cortisol levels (Carlson et al, 2007) and increased telomerase activity (Jacobs et al, 2011). A recent meta-analysis suggests that mindfulness practices compared to active placebo found only modest improvements in anxiety and depression (Goyal et al, 2014)
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