The Relationship between Mental and Somatic Practices and Wisdom.
Patrick B Williams, Heather H Mangelsdorf, Carly Kontra, Howard C Nusbaum, Berthold Hoeckner
PLoS One February 18, 2016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149369 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional survey study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Practitioners of mental and somatic practices: meditators, Alexander Technique practitioners, Feldenkrais Method practitioners, and classical ballet dancers |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Analysis of variance Psychological tests Adolescent Middle aged Child Female Mind-body therapies Young adult Surveys and questionnaires |
| Key findings | Wisdom was higher on average among meditation practitioners and lowest among ballet dancers, even after controlling for age differences between practices. However, increased experience with both meditation and ballet was positively associated with wisdom, and lower trait anxiety mediated this association among meditators and non-significantly among ballet dancers. The authors argue that different practices relate to wisdom in different ways, suggesting different underlying mechanisms. |
Abstract
In this study we sought to explore how experience with specific mental and somatic practices is associated with wisdom, using self-report measures of experience and wisdom. We administered standard surveys to measure wisdom and experience among four groups of practitioners of mental and somatic practices, namely, meditators, practitioners of the Alexander Technique, practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method, and classical ballet dancers. We additionally administered surveys of trait anxiety and empathy to all participants to explore possible mediating relationships of experience and wisdom by characteristics thought to be components of wisdom. Wisdom was higher on average among meditation practitioners, and lowest among ballet dancers, and this difference held when controlling for differences in age between practices, supporting the view that meditation is linked to wisdom and that ballet is not. However, we found that increased experience with meditation and ballet were both positively associated with wisdom, and that lowered trait anxiety mediated this positive association among meditation practitioners, and, non-significantly, among ballet dancers. These results suggest that not all practices that are purported to affect mental processing are related to wisdom to the same degree and different kinds of experience appear to relate to wisdom in different ways, suggesting different mechanisms that might underlie the development of wisdom with experience.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Going beyond ourselves: the role of self-transcendent experiences in wisdom. Cognition & Emotion February 1, 2023
- Mindfulness, cognition, and long-term meditators: Toward a science of advanced meditation. Imaging Neuroscience 2025
- The Importance of Self-Reflection and Awareness for Human Development in Hard Times Research in Human Development July 10, 2018
Cites 7
- Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training and Education in Professional Psychology May 1, 2007
- Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion October 1, 2008
- Increased gray matter volume in the right angular and posterior parahippocampal gyri in loving-kindness meditators Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience July 18, 2012
- The Effect of a Brief Mindfulness Intervention on Memory for Positively and Negatively Valenced Stimuli Mindfulness February 7, 2011
- Does mindfulness attenuate thoughts emphasizing negativity, but not positivity? Journal of Research in Personality December 1, 2014
and 2 more in the library