Does meditation training promote pro-environmental behavior? A cross-sectional comparison and a randomized controlled trial.

Meditation training may promote pro-environmental behavior and related variables, though limited research has tested this experimentally. We investigated whether short- or long-term meditation training were associated with pro-environmental behavior, environmental attitudes, and sustainable well-being (i.e., well-being per unit consumption). In a cross-sectional comparison, long-term meditators (=31; mean=9,154 meditation hours) displayed greater environmental attitudes (=0.63) but not pro-environmental behavior or sustainable well-being compared to meditation-naïve participants (s-0.14-0.27). In a randomized controlled trial (=125), eight-week training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction did not significantly improve target variables relative to waitlist or structurally-matched active control (s=-0.38-0.43). However, relative to waitlist, randomization to meditation or active control predicted increases in pro-environmental behavior (=-0.40) and sustainable well-being (=0.42), although the latter finding was not robust to multiple imputation. While meditation training may promote pro-environmental behavior and its antecedents, the training investigated here does not appear to be uniquely effective.