Kindness is lesser preferable than happiness: investigating interest in different effects of the loving-kindness and compassion meditations.
BMC psychology April 26, 2025 Yanhe Deng, Taoyuan Du, Xianglong Zeng et al. 1 citation
People are less interested in cultivating kindness than in boosting their own happiness, even when signing up for loving-kindness and compassion meditation training. Two studies—one with 583 university students and another with 1,075 participants in a four-week online training—found that kind attitudes were the least desired outcome among potential trainees. Higher interest in meditations focused on subjective well-being predicted increases in personal happiness. The findings suggest that a hedonic bias, prioritizing personal happiness over kindness, is reinforced by trainees themselves, raising philosophical and ethical questions for modern positive psychology.