Dr. David DeSteno

All the three chairs were taken.

At that point, she would kind of lean back against the wall.

let out a little whimper of pain.

And what we wanted to look at is would somebody help her?

Now, the two actors in the chairs, we told, do what you do when you're on the subway, right?

You don't want to give up your seat.

Don't look at the person, thumb your phone, ignore them, right?

So we're creating a situation where people aren't helping.

And our question was, would the person who was in the study in the third chair actually help this person?

In the control condition, people who weren't meditating, about 15% of them

got up and said, oh, do you want my chair?

Can I help you?

Can I hold something for you?

In the meditation condition, it was close to 50% of people who did this, right?

We tripled the rate at which somebody felt compassion for somebody else in pain and was willing

That's a pretty big effect in terms of behavioral science.

So that was a small study.

So we've replicated it.

We've also done it in a situation where someone is provoking you.

So in this situation, people who had been meditating or not came to the lab.