Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering.
Helen Y. Weng, Andrew S Fox, Alexander J Shackman, Diane E. Stodola, Jessica Z K Caldwell, Matthew C Olson, Gregory M Rogers, Richard J. Davidson
Psychological Science July 1, 2013 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612469537 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational training study with pre-post neuroimaging Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy adults |
| Intervention | Compassion training |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Altruism Compassion Decision making Emotion regulation Emotional control FMRI Individual differences Neuroimaging Social behavior |
| Key findings | Compassion training increased altruistic redistribution of funds to a victim encountered outside the training context. This increase was associated with altered activation in the inferior parietal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and with DLPFC connectivity to the nucleus accumbens, suggesting altruism may emerge from engagement of neural systems for understanding suffering, executive and emotional control, and reward processing. |
Abstract
Compassion is a key motivator of altruistic behavior, but little is known about individuals' capacity to cultivate compassion through training. We examined whether compassion may be systematically trained by testing whether (a) short-term compassion training increases altruistic behavior and (b) individual differences in altruism are associated with training-induced changes in neural responses to suffering. In healthy adults, we found that compassion training increased altruistic redistribution of funds to a victim encountered outside of the training context. Furthermore, increased altruistic behavior after compassion training was associated with altered activation in brain regions implicated in social cognition and emotion regulation, including the inferior parietal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and in DLPFC connectivity with the nucleus accumbens. These results suggest that compassion can be cultivated with training and that greater altruistic behavior may emerge from increased engagement of neural systems implicated in understanding the suffering of other people, executive and emotional control, and reward processing.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 116
- The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience Review of General Psychology May 1, 2017
- Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based kindness curriculum. Developmental Psychology November 10, 2014
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- Effect of kindness-based meditation on health and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology June 30, 2014
- Mindfulness and Compassion: An Examination of Mechanism and Scalability PLoS One February 17, 2015
and 111 more in the library
Cites 7
- Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology October 27, 2008
- Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: potential for psychological interventions. Clinical Psychology Review July 26, 2011
- Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise PLoS One March 25, 2008
- Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion October 1, 2008
- Compassion meditation enhances empathic accuracy and related neural activity Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience September 5, 2012
and 2 more in the library