Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions

Abstract

Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions Article (Accepted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Stell, Alexander J and Farsides, Tom (2015) Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 40 (1). pp. [140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147] This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/60181/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. LKM, BIAS & OTHER-REGARDING EMOTIONS

Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Conscious and Non-Conscious Components of the Mind

“…Few studies addressed mindfulness or meditation relating them to implicit attitudes and representations, and many of these studies employed the IAT [33,36,37,39,40,[42][43][44]. Other studies that focused on implicit learning found a negative relationship between dispositional mindfulness and implicit learning and memory, thus suggesting an effect of mindfulness on implicit cognition in terms of erosion of habitual patterns of responding [37,47,48].…”

“…In this respect, another line of research has started to address implicit prejudices and stereotypes against members of certain stigmatized groups [31]. Recent studies that used the IAT have shown that meditation can reduce implicit bias; in particular, these studies concerned the practice of loving-kindness meditation and implicit bias toward blacks and the homeless [42,43]. Furthermore, other studies focused on mindfulness practice and reductions on implicit age and race bias and discriminatory behavior [44,45].…”

Fruits of the Buddhism-science dialogue in contemplative research

“…Most recently, contemplative researchers have asked whether meditation may be beneficial in reducing implicit biases that so often result in discriminatory societal structures and behavior. This line of inquiry is still very new, but early findings point to exciting possibilities including reduced implicit bias, increased helping behavior toward outgroups, and reduced discriminatory behavior [50][51][52][53][54]. Taken together, this work highlights the need for continued study of practices that integrate self and other, and calls for greater incorporation of measures that can assess a range of prosocial outcomes.…”

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“…What is relevant for this conversation is that compassion cultivation training, which includes empathy training, has been known to increase altruistic and pro-social behavior (Leiberg, Klimecki, & Singer, 2011) as well as deepen relationships and social connection (Frederickson et al, 2008;Hein et al, 2010;Hutcherson, Seppala, & Gross, 2008;Klimecki, Leiberg, Lamm, & Singer, 2013;Leiberg, Klimecki, & Singer, 2011). Compassion cultivation training has also been known to reduce implicit bias (Kang, Gray, & Dovidio, 2014;Lueke & Gibson, 2014), stereotype threat (Weger, Hooper, Meier, & Hopthrow, 2012), and reduce racial bias (Stell & Farsides, 2016). However, the specific neurological processes related to these findings are yet unclear.…”