Talk to Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body like its author wrote you back.
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What it argues
Altered Traits is a careful assessment of what neuroscience actually knows about meditation, written by two researchers who have spent their careers at the intersection of contemplative practice and empirical science. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, and Richard Davidson, director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, bring unusual credibility to the project: both have meditated for decades, and both have been involved in the research they are assessing. The book's central mission is to separate genuine findings from the hype that has surrounded meditation science since it went mainstream.
The title captures the argument. Most meditation research shows "altered states" — temporary changes in brain activity during or immediately after practice. Goleman and Davidson are interested in something harder to demonstrate: "altered traits," the durable changes in personality, perception, and behavior that persist beyond any single session. The research on traits is far thinner and more contested than the popular coverage suggests. The authors spend considerable time on what the science does not yet support: most published studies have small samples, no active control group, and measure outcomes that are easy to self-report rather than hard to fake. The book is, in part, a field-clearing exercise.
What it gets right
- 1.
The distinction between 'altered states' (temporary changes during meditation) and 'altered traits' (durable personality and behavioral changes) is the key diagnostic question in meditation research. Most published research measures states, not traits.
- 2.
The research shows a dose-response relationship: brief practice produces modest benefits; sustained practice produces measurable neural and behavioral changes; deep long-term practice (thousands of hours) produces changes that appear qualitatively different.
- 3.
Most mainstream meditation research has methodological weaknesses: small samples, no active controls, self-report outcomes, and short follow-up periods. Goleman and Davidson rate studies explicitly by quality.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Daniel Goleman is an American psychologist and science journalist best known for Emotional Intelligence (1995), which introduced that concept to a general audience. He has been a science reporter for The New York Times and holds a PhD from Harvard. Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. Both have maintained personal meditation practices for more than forty years.
