, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp 541-545
Date: 17 Mar 2012

Loving-kindness brings loving-kindness: The impact of Buddhism on cognitive self–other integration

Abstract

Common wisdom has it that Buddhism enhances compassion and self–other integration. We put this assumption to empirical test by comparing practicing Taiwanese Buddhists with well-matched atheists. Buddhists showed more evidence of self–other integration in the social Simon task, which assesses the degree to which people co-represent the actions of a coactor. This suggests that self–other integration and task co-representation vary as a function of religious practice.