In plain language
Mindfulness is often sold as a way to improve your own well-being — reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. But critics have wondered whether modern, secular mindfulness, stripped of the ethical teachings of the contemplative traditions it grew from, benefits anyone other than the practitioner. This paper asked a simple question: does being mindful make people more likely to help others?
The researchers systematically reviewed the scientific literature and meta-analysed 31 eligible studies involving 17,241 participants and 73 effect sizes, covering both mindfulness as a personality trait and mindfulness training as an intervention. They found a positive, medium-sized association in both cases: people higher in trait mindfulness behaved more prosocially (d = .73), and mindfulness interventions increased helping behaviour (d = .51). The intervention effects held across different meditation types and intensities, and across gender and age groups.
Interestingly, interventions that added explicitly prosocial elements (such as loving-kindness practices) were no more effective at boosting helping than training mindful awareness alone, suggesting non-judgemental awareness by itself is sufficient to foster prosocial responding. Preliminary evidence pointed to empathic concern, emotion regulation, and positive affect as possible pathways. The findings suggest the benefits of mindfulness do extend beyond the individual to the people around them.
Key findings
- Across 31 studies (N = 17,241) and 73 effect sizes, mindfulness was positively linked to prosocial behaviour.
- Correlational studies showed a pooled effect of d = .73 (95% CI 0.51 to 0.96) between trait mindfulness and prosocial behaviour.
- Mindfulness interventions increased helping behaviour with a pooled effect of d = .51 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.66), consistent across meditation types, intensities, gender, and age categories.
- Trait mindfulness related to both self- and other-reports of prosociality, and to helping both known and unknown others (though more strongly for known others).
- The mindfulness–prosociality link was strongest among adults, but positive for all age groups including adolescents and emerging adults.
- Interventions cultivating prosocial emotions were not more effective than mindful-awareness training alone; preliminary mediators included empathic concern, emotion regulation, and positive affect.
How to cite
APA
Donald, J. N., Sahdra, B. K., Van Zanden, B., Duineveld, J. J., Atkins, P. W. B., Marshall, S. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2019). Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour. British Journal of Psychology, 110(1), 101–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12338
BibTeX
@article{donald2019does,
title = {Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour},
author = {Donald, James N. and Sahdra, Baljinder K. and Van Zanden, Brooke and Duineveld, Jasper J. and Atkins, Paul W. B. and Marshall, Sarah L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
journal = {British Journal of Psychology},
volume = {110},
number = {1},
pages = {101--125},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1111/bjop.12338}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.