Training Emotion Cultivates Morality: How Loving-Kindness Meditation Hones Compassion and Increases Prosocial Behavior.
Journal of Religion and Health December 1, 2015 Joseph Bankard
Moral judgments and prosocial behavior are more heavily influenced by emotion and intuition than by rationality and deliberative analysis. Because affective states primarily motivate behavior, moral sentiments must be trained through habituation to increase prosocial action. The article examines empirical evidence linking emotional training, specifically loving-kindness meditation (LKM), with increased prosociality. Studies by Lutz, Davidson, Leiberg, and others show that meditation practices affect physical health, neural restructuring, emotion regulation, and helping behavior. The article argues that LKM training hones compassion and ultimately leads to an increase in compassionate behavior.