MORE BUSINESSES ARE offering mindfulness
programs designed to help employees
alleviate anxiety, reduce stress,
regulate their emotions, and improve
their focus. But a new study suggests that
mindfulness also helps make people more
generous, helpful, and compassionate.
Those are some of the findings in a
new paper by Andrew Hafenbrack of
the University of Washington Foster
School of Business in Seattle; Lindsey D.
Cameron of the Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia;
Gretchen M. Spreitzer of the Ross
School of Business at the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor; Chen Zhang of
the School of Economics and Management
at Tsinghua University in Beijing;
Laura J. Noval of the Imperial College
Business School in London; and Samah
Shaffakat of the Liverpool Business
School at Liverpool John Moores University
in the United Kingdom.
A large body of research already
suggests that meditation improves a
person’s psychological state in ways that
could enhance productivity. But the new
study indicates that even a single, brief
session of mindfulness meditation—
which people usually embark upon for
their own welfare—enhances prosocial
behaviors, which can improve the lives of
their co-workers and customers.
The researchers conducted experiments
across a variety of workplaces
and laboratories in North America,
Europe, and Asia. In each case, some
participants were randomly selected to
participate in an eight- or 15-minute
directed meditation session. Others were placed in a control group that
either did no meditation, listened to
the news, or engaged in a directed
mind-wandering technique of the same
duration. These experiments all confirmed
that those participating in even a
single brief session of focused-breathing
meditation, a common mindfulness exercise,
were more likely than non-meditators
to provide help to others or share
a financial windfall with others in need.
Another study compared the effects
of the focused-breathing exercise with
an activity called the loving-kindness
meditation. This meditation directs participants
to visualize sending positive
energy to themselves, then those close to
them, then to enemies, then to the world.
After both forms of meditation, participants
were asked to imagine they were
managers who had to give a negative
performance critique to an employee
who was going through a tough time.
The responses were coded for compassion.
Those in the focused-breathing
group and the loving-kindness group
exhibited equal amounts of compassion—
and considerably more than those
who had not meditated at all.
The authors found that the boost
in compassion comes from how focused-
breathing meditation inspires
people to see the world through others’
eyes, and how loving-kindness meditation
inspires empathy. “There’s a
cognitive pathway for focused-breathing
and an emotional pathway for lovingkindness,”
says Hafenbrack. “They had
the same effect on prosocial behavior.”
Hafenbrack cautions that mindfulness
is not a panacea for all the ills of an
organization—and its benefits are likely
to dissipate if employees feel obligated to
participate. Companies that offer mindfulness
programs should make participation
optional, he suggests.
“Helping People by Being in the Present:
Mindfulness Increases Prosocial
Behavior” is forthcoming in the journal
Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes.