Abstract
While it has been suggested that loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is an effective practice for promoting positive emotions, the empirical evidence in the literature remains unclear. Here, we provide a systematic review of 24 empirical studies (N = 1759) on LKM with self-reported positive emotions. The effect of LKM on positive emotions was estimated with meta-analysis, and the influence of variations across LKM interventions was further explored with subgroup analysis and meta-regression. The meta-analysis showed that (1) medium effect sizes for LKM interventions on daily positive emotions in both wait-list controlled RCTs and non-RCT studies; and (2) small to large effect sizes for the on-going practice of LKM on immediate positive emotions across different comparisons. Further analysis showed that (1) interventions focused on loving-kindness had medium effect size, but interventions focused on compassion showed small effect sizes; (2) the length of interventions and the time spent on meditation did not influence the effect sizes, but the studies without didactic components in interventions had small effect sizes. A few individual studies reported that the nature of positive emotions and individual differences also influenced the results. In sum, LKM practice and interventions are effective in enhancing positive emotions, but more studies are needed to identify the active components of the interventions, to compare different psychological operations, and to explore the applicability in clinical populations.
Highlights
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a special type of Buddhist meditation that aims to cultivate unconditional kind attitudes toward oneself and others
10 randomized control trails (RCTs) studies (Table 1) and 7 non-RCT studies (Table 2) evaluated the effect of the interventions on daily positive emotions, 6 RCT studies evaluated the immediate effect of on-going practice of LKM (Table 3)
Effect of LKM Interventions on Daily Positive Emotions The majority of the reviewed studies (17 out of 25) investigated the effect of LKM interventions on daily positive emotions. Both RCT studies with a wait list control group and non-RCT studies showed that LKM interventions had medium effect sizes, the results are inconsistent across all studies
Summary
Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a special type of Buddhist meditation that aims to cultivate unconditional kind attitudes toward oneself and others. Practitioners silently repeat some phrases, such as “may you be happy” or “may you be free from suffering” toward targets. In some traditions, they visualize the mental image of the targets or light from one’s heart toward others to help the generation of intentions (Sujiva, 2007). The targets change gradually with practice, following an order from easy to difficult; they generally begin with oneself, loved ones, neutral ones, difficult ones and all beings, with variations across traditions.
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