Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is associated with improvements in mindful attention, emotion, and well-being, and amount of meditation practice is linked to greater improvement in mindful attention. At a two-month follow-up, MBSR also showed improvements in moral reasoning and ethical decision making. This preliminary evidence suggests MBSR may facilitate moral reasoning and decision making in adults.
A nine-week compassion meditation program reduced mind wandering to neutral topics and increased self-directed caring behaviors among 51 adults. More frequent meditation practice was linked to less mind wandering to unpleasant topics and more mind wandering to pleasant topics, and both changes were associated with increased caring behaviors for oneself and others. Overall, mind wandering did not mediate the relationship between meditation frequency and caring behaviors when all topics were combined, but topic-specific mind wandering did play a role.