Tan Lucy B G, Lo Barbara C Y, Macrae C Neil
School of Medicine, Psychiatry Discipline, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
PLoS One. 2014 Oct 17;9(10):e110510. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110510. eCollection 2014.
The ability to infer and understand the mental states of others (i.e., Theory of Mind) is a cornerstone of human interaction. While considerable efforts have focused on explicating when, why and for whom this fundamental psychological ability can go awry, considerably less is known about factors that may enhance theory of mind. Accordingly, the current study explored the possibility that mindfulness-based meditation may improve people's mindreading skills. Following a 5-minute mindfulness induction, participants with no prior meditation experience completed tests that assessed mindreading and empathic understanding. The results revealed that brief mindfulness meditation enhanced both mental state attribution and empathic concern, compared to participants in the control group. These findings suggest that mindfulness may be a powerful technique for facilitating core aspects of social-cognitive functioning.
推断和理解他人心理状态的能力（即心理理论）是人际互动的基石。尽管人们付出了巨大努力来阐明这种基本心理能力在何时、为何以及对何人会出现偏差，但对于可能增强心理理论的因素却知之甚少。因此，当前的研究探讨了基于正念的冥想可能会提高人们读心技巧的可能性。在进行了5分钟的正念引导后，没有冥想经验的参与者完成了评估读心和共情理解的测试。结果显示，与对照组的参与者相比，简短的正念冥想增强了心理状态归因和共情关注。这些发现表明，正念可能是促进社会认知功能核心方面的一种有效技巧。
