Is Self-Centered a Refutation of the Ego-Quieting Hypothesis in Contemplative Practices?

Meditation can reduce self-interested behaviors by quieting the defensive ego when the self is threatened. Three experiments tested this ego-quieting principle against the self-centrality principle. The first experiment (400 participants) examined meditation's effect on a salient self facing a proximal physical threat. The second (200 participants) tested distal defensiveness under physical threat. The third (200 participants) evaluated proximal defensiveness when self-concept was threatened. Results provide evidence that practicing meditation quiets the ego, or tends to do so, when attention focuses on a self threatened by a thought-based context.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract: The self-centrality principle holds that contemplative practices activate self-salience, encouraging moral self-enhancement, rather than the expected effect of acceptance hypothesized by the ego-quieting principle ( Gebauer et al., 2018 ). However, meditation may favor ego-quieting by inhibiting the disposition to judge and/or react to defend more equanimously a self that feels threatened ( Brown et al., 2007 ). In this study, we propose that meditation helps to reduce behaviors based on self-interest by limiting the defensive sense of the ego when the self is salient. We carry out three experimental studies to test this proposal. The first one tests the effect of meditation on a salient self with a proximal threat to their physical survival ( N = 400). The second study tests the effect of meditation in the case of distal defensiveness in a salient self whose physical survival is threatened ( N = 200). The third study evaluates the effect of proximal defensiveness when the integrity of the self-concept of the salient self is threatened ( N = 200). Our results provide evidence that practicing meditation quiets the ego, or tends to do so, when attention is focused on a self-threatened by a context based on a thought.