Mindfulness has been linked to engaging in behavior that seeks to benefits others in many previous studies, but is that true for all individuals? A study published in Scientific Reports suggests that people with higher intelligence who are more mindful may actually be less prone to engage in prosocial behavior.
Prosocial behavior is frequently thought of as actions that aim to help others, such as sharing, cooperating, comforting, assisting, and more. There are a myriad of factors that have been associated with engaging in prosocial behavior, such as increased intelligence and increased empathy.
There is also research suggesting that intelligence and dispositional mindfulness can interact to affect the likeliness to engage in prosocial behaviors. Dispositional mindfulness refers to an individual’s general tendency to be mindful in everyday life. It represents a person’s inclination to be aware of and attentive to their present-moment experiences.
The new study sought to better understand how mindfulness could potentially moderate the relationship between intelligence and empathy, and empathy and prosocial behavior.
For their study, Qiangke Guo and colleagues utilized 759 college students in China to serve as their sample. There were 477 female participants, and the average age was 22.03 years old. Participants received extra credit in a psychology course in exchange for their participation. They completed self-report measures on prosocial behavior, intelligence, empathy, and dispositional mindfulness.
Results showed that intelligence and prosocial behavior had a positive, significant correlation, which is consistent with previous research. This is possibly due in part to increased empathy. In other words, more intelligent individuals also tend to be more empathetic, which in turn is associated with prosocial behavior.
“High intelligence individuals have stronger executive function and theory of mind abilities, therefore it easier for them to put themselves in other people’s situations and lend a helping hand when witnessing others suffering,” the researchers said.
Additionally, mindfulness was found to be a moderator between intelligence and prosocial behavior, such that prosocial behavior is higher in intelligent people who report low levels of mindfulness and lower in intelligent people who report high levels of mindfulness. This was contrary to the researcher’s hypothesis.
Mindfulness also significantly decreased the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior. Although empathy and prosocial behavior have a positive association at both levels of mindfulness, it is significantly reduced when mindfulness is high. This may suggest that some aspect of mindfulness may prevent prosocial emotions from turning into prosocial behavior.
This study took important steps into better understanding mindfulness’ relationship with prosocial behavior. Despite this, there are limitations to note. One significant limitation is that all measures were self-report, which leaves them vulnerable to social desirability bias. Additionally, all participants utilized were undergraduate students who participated for extra credit, which could limit generalizability.
“This study may have revealed the limitations of mindfulness. That is, the intelligence-prosociality association is weakened by mindfulness, suggesting that mindfulness may deter prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals,” the researchers concluded.
“The reason may be that present moment awareness and acceptance of the status quo can result in reduced arousal thereby preventing high intelligence individuals from taking action to reach a desired state (e.g., help a victim get rid of trouble). In other words, high intelligence individuals are more likely to reach a peaceful and relaxed state by focusing on the present moment, thus they are reluctant to take action to reach a desired state… this study may be practically important in revealing drawbacks of traditional mindfulness practice.”
The study, “Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals“, was authored by Qingke Guo, Sisi Li, Jingu Liang, Xinxin Yu, and Yiqing Lv.