Calm... and self-centred

WITH breathing exercises that help to tune out anxious thoughts, meditation has become popular for its stressrelieving and calming benefits.

But that same detachment also makes its advocates less generous by reducing feelings of guilt, according to University of Washington researchers.

More than 1,400 participants in a trial were asked to recall a time they had wronged someone and felt guilty, before being randomly assigned to meditate or not. They were then asked to split a hypothetical $100 between a birthday gift for the person they wronged, a charity for African flood victims and themselves.

Participants who had meditated allocated on average 17 per cent less to the person they had wronged compared with those who had not.

‘Meditating can reduce feelings of guilt, thus limiting reactions like generosity,’ says

Professor Andrew Hafenbrack, a psychologist at the university.