Which parts of the practice do the work: present-moment attention, disclosure, or hearing how you affect others?
Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Adjacent
In a nine-month contemplative training, structured partner exercises engaged people as well as solitary meditation did, and their sense of social closeness grew.
The ReSource Project trained adults in Leipzig and Berlin through three three-month modules. Two of them included contemplative dyads: structured partner exercises in which two people take turns answering set questions while the other listens without interrupting. Participants practised the dyads about as often as they meditated, and their self-disclosure and closeness rose over time. The authors propose dyads as a new kind of intervention for loneliness.
What it doesn’t show
Participants rated their own closeness around the partner sessions, so the trial shows growth within the practice, not an advantage over solitary meditation. The dyads were designed by the trial’s own team. Everything was measured during the training, with no follow-up after it.
Directions that build on it
- Active ingredients
- A controlled trial of Circling
Does a Circling programme reduce loneliness or build closeness more than an active control?
Links
Cite
Kok, B. E., & Singer, T. (2017). Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 74(2), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.3360