Does your mindfulness benefit others? A systematic review and meta‐analysis of the link between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour
2018/08/09 by James N. Donald, Baljinder K. Sahdra, Brooke Van Zanden +5 · 381 citations
Psychology · #Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Clinical psychology #Developmental psychology #Intervention (counseling) #Meditation #Meta-analysis #Mindfulness #Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions #Mindfulness meditation #Personality #Prosocial behavior #Psychology #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1111/bjop.12338
published in British Journal of Psychology 110(1), 101-125 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2018/08/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract
Mindfulness-based meditation practices have received substantial scientific attention in recent years. Mindfulness has been shown to bring many psychological benefits to the individual, but much less is known about whether these benefits extend to others. This meta-analysis reviewed the link between mindfulness - as both a personality variable and an intervention - and prosocial behaviour. A literature search produced 31 eligible studies (N = 17,241) and 73 effect sizes. Meta-analyses were conducted using mixed-effects structural equation models to examine pooled effects and potential moderators of these effects. We found a positive pooled effect between mindfulness and prosocial behaviour for both correlational (d = .73 CI 95% [0.51 to 0.96]) and intervention studies (d = .51 CI 95% [0.37 to 0.66]). For the latter, medium-sized effects were obtained across varying meditation types and intensities, and across gender and age categories. Preliminary evidence is presented regarding potential mediators of these effects. Although we found that mindfulness is positively related to prosociality, further research is needed to examine the mediators of this link and the contexts in which it is most pronounced.
Citations
Cited by
- Supporting Productivity Skill Development in College Students through Social Robot Coaching: A Proof-of-Concept
- Linking internal and external transformation for sustainability and climate action: Towards a new research and policy agenda
- Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body’s restorative capacity.
- Mindfulness-based interventions: an overall review
- Teachers’ Psychological Characteristics: Do They Matter for Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers’ Well-being, Retention, and Interpersonal Relations? An Integrative Review
- How does mindfulness training improve moral cognition: a theoretical and experimental framework for the study of embodied ethics. [europepmc]
- Mindful Leader Development: How Leaders Experience the Effects of Mindfulness Training on Leader Capabilities. [europepmc]
- The Effect of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Attention, Self-Control, and Aggressiveness in Primary School Pupils. [europepmc]
- Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study. [europepmc]
- Effectiveness of providing university students with a mindfulness-based intervention to increase resilience to stress: 1-year follow-up of a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. [europepmc]
- Mindfulness-Based College: A Stage 1 Randomized Controlled Trial for University Student Well-Being. [europepmc]
- Testing the Efficacy of a Multicomponent, Self-Guided, Smartphone-Based Meditation App: Three-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial. [europepmc]
- The Empirical Status of Mindfulness-Based Interventions: A Systematic Review of 44 Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials. [europepmc]
- Can psychological flexibility and prosociality mitigate illness perceptions toward COVID-19 on mental health? A cross-sectional study among Hong Kong adults. [europepmc]
- Mindfulness-based interventions: an overall review. [europepmc]
- When it really counts: Investigating the relation between trait mindfulness and actual prosocial behavior. [europepmc]
- Examining the Potential Synergistic Effects Between Mindfulness Training and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. [europepmc]
- SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT EARLY IN THE U.S. COVID-19 CRISIS: EXPLORING SOCIAL SUPPORT AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR BETWEEN THOSE WITH AND WITHOUT DEPRESSION OR ANXIETY IN AN ONLINE SAMPLE. [europepmc]
- Mindfulness Is Associated With Lower Stress and Higher Work Engagement in a Large Sample of MOOC Participants. [europepmc]
- The Mindfulness Map: A Practical Classification Framework of Mindfulness Practices, Associated Intentions, and Experiential Understandings. [europepmc]
- Investigating differential effects of socio-emotional and mindfulness-based online interventions on mental health, resilience and social capacities during the COVID-19 pandemic: The study protocol. [europepmc]
- Effects of a Mindfulness App on Employee Stress in an Australian Public Sector Workforce: Randomized Controlled Trial. [europepmc]
- Interpersonal Mindfulness Questionnaire: Scale Development and Validation. [europepmc]
- The search for scientific meaning in mindfulness research: Insights from a scoping review. [europepmc]
- Mindfulness-Based Intervention for the Reduction of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Nurse Caregivers of Institutionalized Older Persons with Dementia: A Randomized Controlled Trial. [europepmc]
- Advancing the treatment of long-lasting borderline personality disorder: a feasibility and acceptability study of an expanded DBT-based skills intervention. [europepmc]
- Differential associations of the two higher-order factors of mindfulness with trait empathy and the mediating role of emotional awareness. [europepmc]
- Effects of Brief Mindfulness Meditation and Compassion Meditation on Parochial Empathy and Prosocial Behavior Toward Ethnic Out-Group Members. [europepmc]
- The effect of universal school-based mindfulness on anhedonia and emotional distress and its underlying mechanisms: A cluster randomised controlled trial via experience sampling in secondary schools. [europepmc]
- Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body's restorative capacity. [europepmc]
Related