Does meditation make people better?
At the annual SPSP 1 conference, where I was lucky to be recently, every day one of the morning sessions was devoted to the study of mindfulness (mindfulness 2 ). Consciousness in modern science is understood as “the intentional direction of attention at the present moment, the non-judgmental acceptance of everything that happens” 3 .
In recent decades, Western scientists have conducted a lot of research to understand this seemingly simple practice and include it in the arsenal of useful methods. An interesting review of various studies was published in 2011 in the journal Review of Clinical Psychology .
The variety of methods is impressive: electromagnetic scanning of the brain of Tibetan monks who practice a variety of meditative techniques for most of their lives, interviewing students to determine the correlation between awareness and life satisfaction, experiential testing of the psychotherapeutic influence of the practice of awareness in treating depression or suicidal tendencies, etc. Most researchers agree that mindfulness improves mental health (to one degree or another), and a consensus is already emerging in Western psychology: "Awareness is good and useful."
My main interest, social psychology, is concentrated not on a separate individual, but on the interaction of people with each other, and therefore pays special attention to the factors influencing this interaction. And awareness with regard to social psychology is also studied in the context of the possibility of this practice to influence the interaction of a person with the outside world. There are not so many studies here, and in order to tell about some of them, it is often necessary to first conduct a whole lecture on methods - for example, by examining the bones of the “Test of subconscious associations” . But one of the presentations at the conference was devoted to a couple of experiments whose methodology is so obvious (and at the same time so elegant) that I consider it my duty to tell about them to a wide audience.
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Both studies were conducted under the direction of Paul Condon from Northeastern University in Boston. The results of the first study were published in the journal Psychological Science in 2013, the second article was published recently in the scientific journal PLOS . Both studies are based on a similar methodology, so I will describe in detail only the first experiment, and I will speak about the second one already in the context of what was said.
For the experiment, scientists published an ad for participants to study the effects of meditation during an eight-week practice. Of those who responded to the announcement, 67 people were selected who had no previous experience in meditative practices and scored enough points on the Short Scale of Mental Status Evaluation. Of these, 39 people took part in the experiment (29 women and 10 men, average age 25 years); for participation in the experiment, they received $ 60.
Participants were randomly divided into experimental (meditating) and control groups. The first ones completed an eight-week meditation course: once a week they gathered and practiced with the teacher for 2 hours, and also practiced at home 20 minutes a day using audio instructions. The control group was announced that they were on a waiting list and would be invited to practice later.
After eight weeks, all participants were invited to take an IQ test, and each participant received an individual invitation for a specific time. Upon arrival at the laboratory, the participant was asked to wait in the waiting room; there was a real experiment. There were three chairs in the room, but by the time the participant appeared, two of them were already occupied by girls who “were waiting for their turn” and were “on the phone”. In fact, they were fake participants and sent sms about what was happening to experimenters. In particular, they reported when the participant sat on an empty seat. A minute later, a girl appeared on the crutches in the room, which obviously showed that it hurt her to lean on the injured leg. There was no free space for her, so she got up against the wall.
Next, the researchers observed the reaction of the participant in the experiment and fixed whether he had given way to the “suffering girl,” who, understandably, was a dummy. If after two minutes the participant did not give up the place, then a researcher appeared in the room and invited the participant of the experiment for testing. As a result, one could clearly see how many people showed active compassion in reacting in the same situation played out before them.
The results were impressive. Of the 19 people who did not take the course of meditation, only three gave way, the other 16 people did not express a desire to help. Of the 20 people who completed the meditation course, 10 people gave up the place, and 10 people remained seated for two minutes.
According to the results of this experiment, the passage of an eight-week course of meditation increases the likelihood that a person will decide to give way (more than five times). One possible explanation for such a serious difference can be not only the practice of awareness itself, but simply the fact that once a week the “meditators” were in a group of people in a calm atmosphere. This in itself is not bad, but scientists decided to double-check their hypothesis with the help of another experiment.
The second study involved 56 students from Northeastern University, who also had no significant meditation experience. They were randomly divided into two groups, which were prescribed to complete a course in two mobile applications for two weeks.
The first group (27 students) had to go through 14 sessions in an application to increase the awareness of the Headspace . The second group (29 students) for two weeks passed exercises on training mental abilities in the Lumocity application. In both cases, the sessions took an average of 10-12 minutes per day.
Experimenters had access to the accounts of participants in the experiment and monitored the regularity of the assignments. After two weeks of practice, participants were invited for testing. While they were waiting for their turn, the scene described in the last experiment was played out in front of them. The differences in the groups turned out to be not so colossal as in the first experiment, but still noticeable. In the group that practiced mindfulness ( Headspace App ), 10 out of 27 people gave up their place, and in the group that developed mental abilities ( Lumosity App ), only 4 out of 29 (25 remained sitting for two minutes).
So, meditation makes us kinder. And, judging by the results of the experiment, it is not about kindness, which can be measured with the help of surveys and tests, but about that kindness that people are ready to show when no one directly asks them about it.
These studies are only a small part of the flow of publications on the themes of meditation and awareness, which is gaining momentum in Western peer-reviewed scientific journals. If in 2000 there were less than a hundred of such publications, in 2013 their number exceeded 700 . Of course, one should not slide to the other extreme and perceive awareness as a panacea for all ills. At the aforementioned conference there were also studies showing the possible negative effects of meditation on creativity (although there were also reverse results).
It is necessary to approach awareness, armed with all the same awareness. And most importantly, it is not enough to read about it - it must be practiced. Try setting yourself the same Headspace or Calm and start making the world a better place. Well, or right now try to close your eyes and watch your breath for at least a couple of minutes. Unaccustomed to this may seem like a very difficult task, but if everything good was simple, we would have lived in an ideal world a long time ago.
1 This is the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology , which gathers thousands of social psychologists from the United States, Europe and Asia. Representatives of Russian universities were not noticed. SPSP brings together scientists who hold a psychological approach in social psychology.
2 The term Mindfulness can also be translated as "full mind." Another word for awareness is Awareness. The differences can be a long time to argue. There is a point of view that Mindfulness is “receiving awareness”. This term has got accustomed in the American psychology.
3 “Paying attention to the purpose of the moment, to the unfolding of the experience of the moment to the moment” - Jon Kabat-Zinn, University of Massachusetts Medical School
In recent decades, Western scientists have conducted a lot of research to understand this seemingly simple practice and include it in the arsenal of useful methods. An interesting review of various studies was published in 2011 in the journal Review of Clinical Psychology .The variety of methods is impressive: electromagnetic scanning of the brain of Tibetan monks who practice a variety of meditative techniques for most of their lives, interviewing students to determine the correlation between awareness and life satisfaction, experiential testing of the psychotherapeutic influence of the practice of awareness in treating depression or suicidal tendencies, etc. Most researchers agree that mindfulness improves mental health (to one degree or another), and a consensus is already emerging in Western psychology: "Awareness is good and useful."
My main interest, social psychology, is concentrated not on a separate individual, but on the interaction of people with each other, and therefore pays special attention to the factors influencing this interaction. And awareness with regard to social psychology is also studied in the context of the possibility of this practice to influence the interaction of a person with the outside world. There are not so many studies here, and in order to tell about some of them, it is often necessary to first conduct a whole lecture on methods - for example, by examining the bones of the “Test of subconscious associations” . But one of the presentations at the conference was devoted to a couple of experiments whose methodology is so obvious (and at the same time so elegant) that I consider it my duty to tell about them to a wide audience.
')
Both studies were conducted under the direction of Paul Condon from Northeastern University in Boston. The results of the first study were published in the journal Psychological Science in 2013, the second article was published recently in the scientific journal PLOS . Both studies are based on a similar methodology, so I will describe in detail only the first experiment, and I will speak about the second one already in the context of what was said.
For the experiment, scientists published an ad for participants to study the effects of meditation during an eight-week practice. Of those who responded to the announcement, 67 people were selected who had no previous experience in meditative practices and scored enough points on the Short Scale of Mental Status Evaluation. Of these, 39 people took part in the experiment (29 women and 10 men, average age 25 years); for participation in the experiment, they received $ 60.
Participants were randomly divided into experimental (meditating) and control groups. The first ones completed an eight-week meditation course: once a week they gathered and practiced with the teacher for 2 hours, and also practiced at home 20 minutes a day using audio instructions. The control group was announced that they were on a waiting list and would be invited to practice later.
After eight weeks, all participants were invited to take an IQ test, and each participant received an individual invitation for a specific time. Upon arrival at the laboratory, the participant was asked to wait in the waiting room; there was a real experiment. There were three chairs in the room, but by the time the participant appeared, two of them were already occupied by girls who “were waiting for their turn” and were “on the phone”. In fact, they were fake participants and sent sms about what was happening to experimenters. In particular, they reported when the participant sat on an empty seat. A minute later, a girl appeared on the crutches in the room, which obviously showed that it hurt her to lean on the injured leg. There was no free space for her, so she got up against the wall.Next, the researchers observed the reaction of the participant in the experiment and fixed whether he had given way to the “suffering girl,” who, understandably, was a dummy. If after two minutes the participant did not give up the place, then a researcher appeared in the room and invited the participant of the experiment for testing. As a result, one could clearly see how many people showed active compassion in reacting in the same situation played out before them.
The results were impressive. Of the 19 people who did not take the course of meditation, only three gave way, the other 16 people did not express a desire to help. Of the 20 people who completed the meditation course, 10 people gave up the place, and 10 people remained seated for two minutes.
According to the results of this experiment, the passage of an eight-week course of meditation increases the likelihood that a person will decide to give way (more than five times). One possible explanation for such a serious difference can be not only the practice of awareness itself, but simply the fact that once a week the “meditators” were in a group of people in a calm atmosphere. This in itself is not bad, but scientists decided to double-check their hypothesis with the help of another experiment.
The second study involved 56 students from Northeastern University, who also had no significant meditation experience. They were randomly divided into two groups, which were prescribed to complete a course in two mobile applications for two weeks.
The first group (27 students) had to go through 14 sessions in an application to increase the awareness of the Headspace . The second group (29 students) for two weeks passed exercises on training mental abilities in the Lumocity application. In both cases, the sessions took an average of 10-12 minutes per day.
Experimenters had access to the accounts of participants in the experiment and monitored the regularity of the assignments. After two weeks of practice, participants were invited for testing. While they were waiting for their turn, the scene described in the last experiment was played out in front of them. The differences in the groups turned out to be not so colossal as in the first experiment, but still noticeable. In the group that practiced mindfulness ( Headspace App ), 10 out of 27 people gave up their place, and in the group that developed mental abilities ( Lumosity App ), only 4 out of 29 (25 remained sitting for two minutes).
So, meditation makes us kinder. And, judging by the results of the experiment, it is not about kindness, which can be measured with the help of surveys and tests, but about that kindness that people are ready to show when no one directly asks them about it.
These studies are only a small part of the flow of publications on the themes of meditation and awareness, which is gaining momentum in Western peer-reviewed scientific journals. If in 2000 there were less than a hundred of such publications, in 2013 their number exceeded 700 . Of course, one should not slide to the other extreme and perceive awareness as a panacea for all ills. At the aforementioned conference there were also studies showing the possible negative effects of meditation on creativity (although there were also reverse results).
It is necessary to approach awareness, armed with all the same awareness. And most importantly, it is not enough to read about it - it must be practiced. Try setting yourself the same Headspace or Calm and start making the world a better place. Well, or right now try to close your eyes and watch your breath for at least a couple of minutes. Unaccustomed to this may seem like a very difficult task, but if everything good was simple, we would have lived in an ideal world a long time ago.
1 This is the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology , which gathers thousands of social psychologists from the United States, Europe and Asia. Representatives of Russian universities were not noticed. SPSP brings together scientists who hold a psychological approach in social psychology.
2 The term Mindfulness can also be translated as "full mind." Another word for awareness is Awareness. The differences can be a long time to argue. There is a point of view that Mindfulness is “receiving awareness”. This term has got accustomed in the American psychology.
3 “Paying attention to the purpose of the moment, to the unfolding of the experience of the moment to the moment” - Jon Kabat-Zinn, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/377287/
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