Effects of audio guided loving kindness meditation on psychological well being and laboratory stress responsiveness in healthy university students
Shunta Maeda, Ren Fujisawa, Takumi Uchiyama, Tomoya Sato, Yoshihiro Kanai
Scientific Reports July 15, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-62472-9 (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA two-week online audio-guided loving-kindness meditation program did not outperform mindfulness meditation or an active control in a healthy university population. All groups improved similarly in psychological distress, self-compassion, social connectedness, and negative emotion. In a laboratory stress test, no group differences emerged in average cortisol, blood pressure, or subjective stress. Exploratory analyses suggested that the mindfulness group, but not the loving-kindness group, may have had more attenuated cortisol activation and a higher completion rate on the cold pressor test than the active control, offering hypothesis-generating leads for future research.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 130 |
| Population | Healthy university population |
| Interventions | Loving-kindness meditation Mindfulness meditation |
| Duration | 2-week intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Cold pressor test Mindfulness meditation Psychological stress Psychological well-being Stress linguistics |
| Key finding | No significant group differences were found on subjective outcomes or biological stress responsiveness between loving-kindness meditation, mindfulness meditation, and an active control. |
Abstract
This study investigated the efficacy of a two-week online audio-guided loving-kindness meditation (LKM) program compared with mindfulness meditation (MF) and an active control (AC) group in a healthy university population. The study consisted of an overarching trial (N = 130), with a nested laboratory stress testing (N = 50). The full-sample subjective outcomes involved psychological distress, social approach and avoidance motivation, self-compassion, social connectedness, and positive and negative emotion. The nested laboratory testing examined the stress responsiveness to the socially evaluated cold pressor test, in terms of subjective stress, salivary cortisol, and blood pressure. All groups showed significant improvements in psychological distress, self-compassion, social connectedness, and negative emotion; however, no significant group differences were observed. For stress responsiveness, no significant differences were found across groups in average cortisol, blood pressure, or subjective stress levels. However, subsequent exploratory analyses yielded preliminary signals that the MF group, but not the LKM group, showed more attenuated cortisol activation and a higher completion rate on the cold pressor test than the AC group, which provides hypothesis-generating insights for future research. Overall, the findings did not support the relative superiority of LKM over MF and AC on both subjective indices and biological stress responsiveness.