Trait mindfulness and age, more than emotional empathy, are associated with a low-stakes charitable donation decision

Scientific Reports. 2026. P. 1–17.

Rusinova A., Ossadtchi A., Titova N., Volodina M.

The relationship between interoceptive sensibility, trait mindfulness, and empathy is theorised to underpin prosocial behaviour, yet empirical evidence remains mixed. In a cross-sectional correlational design, we tested three pre-specified hypotheses: (H1) that interoceptive sensibility and trait mindfulness would be associated with higher self-reported emotional empathy; (H2) that these traits, alongside emotional empathy, would be associated with stronger altruistic attitudes; and (H3) that they would be associated with a higher likelihood of a low-stakes charitable donation decision. One hundred sixty-four adults completed measures of interoceptive sensibility (MAIA-R), trait mindfulness (MAAS), emotional empathy, altruistic attitudes, and affective traits, and then chose whether to keep or donate their compensation (79/163, 48.5%, donated). Regarding H1, multivariable regression indicated that emotional empathy was most strongly associated with general emotionality (β = 4.08, p < .001) and age, rather than with interoceptive sensibility or mindfulness. Partially consistent with H2, altruistic attitudes were associated with emotional empathy (β = 6.70, p < .001) and age, whereas interoceptive sensibility and mindfulness did not explain additional unique variance. Regarding H3, the donation decision showed modest associations with higher MAAS scores (OR = 1.91, 95% CI [1.22, 2.98], p = .005; stable in 81.4% of subsampling iterations) and older age (OR = 1.95, 95% CI [1.29, 2.93], p = .001), but not with emotional empathy or interoceptive sensibility; overall out-of-sample discrimination was modest (ROC-AUC ≈ 0.62–0.64). Lasso-regularised models largely converged with standard regression. Together, these findings suggest a tentative distinction between self-reported prosocial motivation and low-stakes charitable action: emotional empathy was associated with altruistic attitudes, whereas MAAS-assessed trait mindfulness showed a stable though modest association with the donation decision.

Keywords: empathy, prosocial behaviour, mindfulness, interoception

Publication based on the results of: Multidisciplinary study of behavior and decision-making in health population and patients using behavioral, economic, neurocognitive, neuroeconomic, neurocomputational and neural network approaches (2025)