Because of all the threats on sustainable development due to human actions, it is necessary to develop individual moral responsibility (IMR), as States Ministries tend to promote (e.g. Éducation Nationale, 2010). Here we aim at giving elements of answers to both questions: what is IMR? And how to favour its development in an institutional context?

Moral psycho-sociological English speaking researches highlight different aspects of IMR and of moral education. Perry (1999) showed how IMR development implies the transformation of the subject’s relationship towards knowledge, through the enhancement of cognitive flexibility (Martin et al., 2011) to the detriment of dogmatism (Rokeach, 1960). Some authors rather put the emphasis on the affective basis of IMR (and the role of empathy; e.g. Hoffman, 1984). Other approaches about moral identity and character introduce a more holistic view of IMR, in which integrity appears as an important quality trait to be developed (Schlenker, 2008). The specific place of environmental attitudes in IMR is mainly addressed in a quite separate field of researches (namely environmental psycho-sociology, Mayer et al., 2004).

Here, we support a model, in which moral education implies the co-development of self-, other- and environmental consciousness (Hagège et al., 2009).

Despite the very recent debate in English speaking contemporary moral philosophy about the link between consciousness and IMR (Levy et al., 2012), some researches in cognitive sciences give strong arguments in favour of the role of consciousness in IMR development (reviewed in Faucher, 2012). Notably, racial discriminating implicit attitudes tend to correspond to subjects’ discriminating behaviour, despite their egalitarian explicit attitudes (ibid.). However this behaviour becomes more egalitarian when the subjects become conscious of their implicit discriminating attitudes (ibid.).

Some traditional practices have been shown to allow people becoming conscious of their previously unconscious implicit attitudes and correlatively to alter their behaviour in a desired way (Cottraux, 2007). They are called “meditation” techniques and correspond to a heterogeneous group of mental trainings that consist in focalising one’s attention on the present moment (reviewed in Braboszcz et al., 2010). They can trigger “altered states of consciousness” and alter default brain functioning (ibid.). Some current models consider emotions as being mainly unconscious and numerous studies showed meditation practices to enhance emotion perception, other-consciousness (cf. empathy), self-consciousness and emotion regulation (ibid.). Also these practices have been shown to decrease automatic thought, to improve cognitive flexibility, and to enhance attention focalisation (ibid.). Moreover they can diminish the emotional weight and enhance the rational weight in decision making (Kirk et al., 2011).

So our working hypothesis is that some meditation practices enhance and transform consciousness in a way that favours IMR development. To our knowledge, there are no previous empirical or theoretical studies showing the potential improving effect of meditation training on IMR. Our objective is here to empirically test such an effect. Our results will provide new information in the debate about IMR and consciousness relationships. 

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