Mind-body practices
enjoy immense public and scientific interest. Yoga and meditation are
highly popular. Purportedly, they foster well-being by “quieting the
ego” or, more specifically, curtailing self-enhancement. However, this
ego-quieting effect contradicts an apparent psychological universal, the
self-centrality principle. According to this principle, practicing any
skill renders it self-central, and self-centrality breeds
self-enhancement.
A new study examined those opposing predictions in the first
tests of mind-body practices’ self-enhancement effects. Experiment 1
followed 93 yoga students over 15 weeks, assessing self-centrality and
self-enhancement after yoga practice (yoga condition, n = 246) and
without practice (control condition, n = 231). Experiment 2 followed 162
meditators over 4 weeks (meditation condition: n = 246; control
condition: n = 245). Self-enhancement was higher in the yoga (Experiment
1) and meditation (Experiment 2) conditions, and those effects were
mediated by greater self-centrality. Additionally, greater
self-enhancement mediated mind-body practices’ well-being benefits.
Evidently, neither yoga nor meditation quiet the ego; instead, they
boost self-enhancement.
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