Meditation-Induced Prosociality: An Integral Analysis Based on Traditional and Scientific Understanding

By : J. Shashi Kiran Reddy, Sisir Roy

Page No: 471-479

Abstract
In the present scenario of the world, where there is a sharp decline of moral and ethical values across the globe making individual and social structures appear chaotic, cultivating prosociality seems to be crucial while we deal with different people, groups and organizations. While the study of prosocial behaviours is usually dealt in the areas of evolutionary and socio-cultural psychology, in recent years, the meditation-induced prosociality has received much attention. Now, there are a substantial number of studies showing that meditation practices can potentially influence prosocial outcomes. As this is the case, some researchers even claim that most of these prosocial studies on meditation involve not only methodological issues but also various biases while analyzing and conducting experimental studies. In addition, the positive prosocial effects of meditation are also attributed toa rather poor understanding as to how these practices really influence such behaviours. Apart from considering various potential aspects that may affect the findings, as suggested by other researchers, future studies should also consider traditional perspective while designing a study. So, this paper focuses on deriving the traditional narratives that suggest the relation between meditation and prosociality and see if this is in line with the contemporary view from the scientific studies.

Authors :
J. Shashi Kiran Reddy : National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), IISC Campus, Bangalore, India.
Sisir Roy : National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), IISC Campus, Bangalore, India.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/JPR.2020.15.02.10