Awakening to Death: How Long-Term Sufi Meditation Shapes Prosocial Responses to Mortality Salience
Elisa Puvia, Luca Simione, Nima Gholizadeh, Shovaneh Feyzi, Antonino Raffone
Research Square November 19, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8136391/v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 55 |
| Population | Iranian adults: 24 Sufi meditators and 31 non-meditators |
| Intervention | Sufi meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | After mortality salience, non-meditators showed increased prosocial orientation consistent with worldview defense, whereas Sufi meditators showed greater accessibility of death-related thoughts, lower anxiety, and a preference for self-related information, suggesting reduced defensive avoidance. Among meditators, years of practice correlated negatively with anxiety and negative affect. The authors argue that sustained contemplative engagement with mortality may buffer existential defensiveness. |
Abstract
Abstract Terror Management Theory posits that awareness of mortality typically elicits defensive responses, yet emerging evidence suggests that meditation may promote adaptive outcomes. This study examined whether long-term Sufi meditation—a contemplative practice emphasizing direct engagement with death—is associated with reduced existential defensiveness and altered prosocial orientation following mortality salience (MS). Fifty-five Iranian participants (24 Sufi meditators, 31 non-meditators) completed implicit measures of self- versus other-oriented attitudes before and after MS, along with affective and cognitive assessments post-MS. Non-meditators showed increased prosocial orientation after MS, consistent with worldview defense strategies. In contrast, Sufi meditators exhibited greater accessibility of death-related thoughts, lower anxiety, and a preference for self-related information, suggesting reduced defensive avoidance. Among meditators, years of practice correlated negatively with anxiety and negative affect. These findings indicate that sustained contemplative engagement with mortality may buffer existential defensiveness, fostering more adaptive affective and cognitive responses.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cites 5
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 26, 2010
- Decentering the Self? Reduced Bias in Self- vs. Other-Related Processing in Long-Term Practitioners of Loving-Kindness Meditation Frontiers in Psychology November 21, 2016
- Short-Term Training in Mindfulness Predicts Helping Behavior Toward Racial Ingroup and Outgroup Members Social Psychological and Personality Science November 18, 2021
- Reducing defensive responses to thoughts of death: Meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology August 24, 2017