Dr. David DeSteno

And so we recruited people who had never meditated before.

And they were either put on a wait list or they came for eight weeks to a sacred space on campus where they were led in meditation at the feet of a Buddhist lama.

And she created, you know, practices for them in MP3 so they can go home and practice.

After eight weeks, we invited each of them individually back to the lab.

And we told them, we're gonna measure your memory.

We're gonna measure your executive control.

It's basically your ability to override your own impulses.

That wasn't the experiment.

The experiment actually happened in the waiting room to the lab.

So when you come into the lab, there's a room with three chairs.

And people were sitting in two of them.

And these were actors that we hired.

People coming into the study thought they were just other people waiting in the room.

And so there was one chair left.

And so the person would take the last chair.

About two or three minutes later, a person would come down the hallway, also an actor who worked for us.

who was on crutches and wearing one of those, you know, boots you put on your foot when it's broken.

It wasn't really broken.

Looking like she was in a good amount of pain.

She came into the room.