Abstract
<p>Altruism in social species, including humans, typically favors genetically close individuals. But humans also show altruism toward non-related individuals who share religious beliefs, ethnic origins, or national identities. This study explores whether Buddhist contemplative training fosters identity fusion—a strong, kin-like psychological bond—with humanity at large and all forms of life on Earth. In a cross-sectional design, 418 Buddhist meditation practitioners and 418 age and gender-matched non-practitioners completed measures of identity fusion and related mechanisms, such as perceived shared biology and empathy-related affective states. Participants also performed a semi-hypothetical donation task. Results showed that practitioners reported significantly higher identity fusion with both humans and animals and made larger donations to humanitarian and animal-protection charities. Meditation impacted underlying mechanisms differently: perceived shared biology increased more for animals, while empathy-related states increased more for humans. Both mechanisms mediated the link between contemplative practice and identity fusion. In turn, identity fusion partially mediated the relationship between meditation and charitable giving, suggesting that fusion with the target group influenced altruistic behavior. These findings suggest that contemplative training may help to extend the cooperative benefits of identity fusion with unrelated individuals, and even with other species.</p>