Kindness is Lesser Preferable Than Happiness: Investigating Interest in Different Effects of the Loving-kindness and Compassion Meditations

As an initial step, Study 1 intended to compare the interest in different effects of LKCM among a convenient sample of university students. In order to separate different effects and close to application in real setting, the study will measure participants' interest in participating in proposed meditations, each of which aimed to generate one specific effect. The kind attitudes were represented by compassion for others, compassion for oneself, and appreciative joy for others, which were emphasized in the real LKCM trainings. The emotional well-being included increasing positive emotion, decreasing negative emotion and improving peacefulness, which were validated effects of LKCM. Other validated effects were also measured as fillers and used as additional explorations. The core hypothesis was that the interest in meditations on kind attitudes is significantly lower than interest in meditations on emotional well-being.

The current study created a measure called Willingness to Participate in Meditation Trainings (WPMT). Participants rated their willingness to participate in nine meditation trainings that serve different purposes. Each meditation was rated by one item ("if the purpose of meditation training is to xxx, how much are you willing to participate?" where "xxx" indicates the purposes listed below) and was measured with a 100-mm Visual Analogue Scale (0 = totally unwilling to participate, 100 = totally willing to participate).

Study 2 adopted WPMT in a 21-day online LKCM training. This make sure all participants really took part in meditation training, and allowed further exploration on how participants' WPMT were associated with the adherence and effects of training. To be more sensitive for the change during short training, the effects of training used state-like measures and still focused on two aspects: (1) personal happiness (happiness, sadness, peacefulness) which matched emotional well-being, and (2) interpersonal relationship (love, hate, gratitude) which reflected kind attitudes. The core hypotheses were that higher interest in meditations on Emotional Well-being and Kind attitudes predicted increases in personal happiness and interpersonal relationship, respectively.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Meditation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: LKCM(Loving-kindness and Compassion Meditations)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1658
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Beijing, China
    • Beijing Normal University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

For study 1 Participants were recruited from two universities in Mainland China with the help of university staff. No other eligibility tests were required.

For study 2 Participants with or without religious beliefs or meditation experience could participate in the study. Each person is required to complete a 21-day meditation course.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: LKCMs	Behavioral: LKCM(Loving-kindness and Compassion Meditations); Loving-kindness and Compassion Meditations

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Interest in Different Effects of LKCM Training	The core hypothesis was that the interest in meditations on kind attitudes is significantly lower than interest in meditations on emotional well-being. The study created a measure called Willingness to Participate in Meditation Trainings (WPMT). Participants rated their willingness to participate in nine meditation trainings that serve different purposes. Each meditation was rated by one item ("if the purpose of meditation training is to xxx, how much are you willing to participate?" where "xxx" indicates the purposes listed below) and was measured with a 100-mm Visual Analogue Scale (0 = totally unwilling to participate, 100 = totally willing to participate).	4 months
Interest in Different Effects and Their Relation with Results of Training	The core hypotheses were that higher interest in meditations on Emotional Well-being and Kind attitudes predicted increases in personal happiness and interpersonal relationship, respectively. The study adopted WPMT in a 21-day online LKCM training. The measure of WPMT was basically the same with that in Study 1, and it directly asked the interests in the current 21-day meditation training. The measure for effects of training used word lists, which measured the frequency of 10 types of experience in the past week, with three items for each type.	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Beijing Normal University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 14, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 14, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 17, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 22, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 22, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 17, 2024
• Last Verified: May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: KM202210028001

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No