Top

Mindfulness

Gepubliceerd in:

17-10-2023 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Brief Compassion Training Reduces Intergroup Psychological Barriers: An Experimental Study

Auteurs: Jackie C. K. Chow, Winnie W. S. Mak, Larry Auyeung

Gepubliceerd in: Mindfulness | Uitgave 11/2023

Abstract

Objectives

This experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of a brief online compassion induction on the individuals’ responses towards different outgroups.

Method

A single-blinded randomized design was employed. Two hundred twenty-three participants (n = 223) completed the baseline questionnaire. They were randomly assigned to either the compassion condition (watch a 20-min video on guided compassion practice) or the attention control condition (watch a 20-min video on rock formation). Experimenters monitored participants’ attentiveness. A post-experiment questionnaire was administered immediately afterwards. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used for outcome analyses. The independent variables included experimental conditions (compassion vs. attention control), timepoint of the measurement (pre-experiment, post-experiment), and interactions between these variables. Outcome variables included negative outgroup emotions and attitudes, social distance, and donation behavior towards three outgroups (ethnic minorities, Mainland immigrants, people with opposite political views).

Results

Compared to the control condition, the compassion induction led to a small reduction in the overall negative emotions (d = 0.22), attitudes (d = 0.24), and social distance (d = 0.21) towards outgroup. Small reductions in negative emotions (d = 0.26), attitudes (d = 0.40), and social distance (d = 0.28) towards immigrants were also found. Additionly, a small reduction in negative emotions (d = 0.26) towards political partisans was observed. No effect was found for ethnic minorities, while the effect of compassion on donation behavior was not significant.

Conclusions

A brief online compassion induction could facilitate more favorable responses towards outgroups, reducing intergroup psychological barriers. Generic compassion induction could potentially serve as a convenient tool for intergroup interventions targeting various social groups.

Preregistration

This study is not preregistered.

vorige artikel Preliminary Evaluation of Learning to BREATHE PLUS for University Students: Does a Multi-Modal Adaptive Supplement Strengthen Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention?

volgende artikel At-Home use of App-Based Mindfulness for Children: A Randomized Active-Controlled Trial

Bar-Tal, D. (2013). Intractable conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139025195CrossRef

Bar-Tal, D., Halperin, E., & De Rivera, J. (2007). Collective emotions in conflict situations: Societal implications. Journal of Social Issues, 63(2), 441–460. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00518.xCrossRef

Batson, C. D., Fultz, J., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1987). Distress and empathy: Two qualitatively distinct vicarious emotions with different motivational consequences. Journal of Personality, 55(1), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1987.tb00426.xCrossRefPubMed

Berry, D. R., Rodriguez, K., Tasulis, G., et al. (2022). Mindful attention as a skillful means toward intergroup prosociality. Mindfulness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01926-3

Brienza, J. P., Kung, F. Y. H., & Chao, M. M. (2021). Wise reasoning, intergroup positivity, and attitude polarization across contexts. Nature Communications, 12(1), 3313. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23432-1CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Chang, D. F., Donald, J., Whitney, J., Miao, I. Y., & Sahdra, B. (2023). Does mindfulness improve intergroup bias, internalized bias, and anti-bias outcomes?: A meta-analysis of the evidence and agenda for future research. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 1461672231178518. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231178518

Chen, J., Li, Z., Xu, D., & Wu, X. (2019). Effects of neighborhood discrimination towards Mainland immigrants on mental health in Hong Kong. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(6), 1025. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16061025CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Cheung, L. T., Ma, A. T., Lee, K. M., Lee, J. C., & Lo, Y. L. (2019). How does political orientation influence one’s environmental attitude and behaviour? Debate over country park conservation in Hong Kong. Environmental Science & Policy, 99, 115–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.05.026CrossRef

Cikara, M., Bruneau, E., Van Bavel, J., & Saxe, R. (2014). Their pain gives us pleasure: How intergroup dynamics shape empathic failures and counter-empathic responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 55, 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2014.06.007CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Civil Engineering and Development Department. (2009). Minerals and rocks - Geological building blocks. Minerals and Rocks – Geological Building Blocks. Home of Hong Kong Geology - A 400-million year journey. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://hkss.cedd.gov.hk/hkss/eng/education/GS/eng/hkg/chapter1.htm

Condon, P., & Makransky, J. (2020). Recovering the relational starting point of compassion training: A foundation for sustainable and inclusive care. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(6), 1346–1362. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620922200CrossRefPubMed

Covey, S. R. (2013). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster.

DeLisle, J. (2019). Hong Kong’s summer of discontent: Another battle in the long war over autonomy, democracy, and the rule of law. FPRI: Foreign Policy Research Institute, 63(4), 473–504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orbis.2019.08.009CrossRef

Equal Opportunities Commission. (2016). Study on discrimination against ethnic minorities in the provision of goods, services and facilities, and disposal and management of premises. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://www.eoc.org.hk/EOC/Upload/UserFiles/File/ResearchReport/201609/EM-GSF_Report(Eng)V8_2_final.pdf

Fehr, B. (2013). The social psychology of love. In I. J. A. Simpson & L. Campbell (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of close relationships (pp. 201–233). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398694.001.0001CrossRef

Fehr, B., Sprecher, S., & Underwood, L. G. (2009). Compassionate love: Conceptual, measurement, and relational issues. In The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 27–53). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444303070.ch2CrossRef

FitzGerald, C., & Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: A systematic review. BMC Medical Ethics, 18, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Fong, E., Li, J. X., & Chan, C. C. (2018). Mainland migrants in Hong Kong (Vol. 275-289). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660530-17CrossRef

Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010). Compassion: An evolutionary analysis and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 351–374. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018807CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes of management of spoiled identity. Simon and Schuster.

Goldfried, J., & Miner, M. (2002). Quest religion and the problem of limited compassion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41(4), 685–695. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00154CrossRef

Gu, J., Baer, R., Cavanagh, K., Kuyken, W., & Strauss, C. (2020). Development and psychometric properties of the Sussex-Oxford compassion scales (SOCS). Assessment, 27(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191119860911CrossRefPubMed

Halperin, E., Porat, R., Tamir, M., & Gross, J. J. (2013). Can emotion regulation change political attitudes in intractable conflicts? From the laboratory to the field. Psychological Science, 24(1), 106–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612452572CrossRefPubMed

Halperin, E., Russell, A. G., Trzesniewski, K. H., Gross, J. J., & Dweck, C. S. (2011b). Promoting the Middle East peace process by changing beliefs about group malleability. Science, 333(6050), 1767–1769. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1202925CrossRefPubMed

Halperin, E., Sharvit, K., & Gross, J. J. (2011a). Emotions and emotion regulation in conflicts. In D. Bar-Tal (Ed.), Intergroup conflicts and their resolution: A social psychological perspective. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203834091CrossRef

Hong Kong Unison. (2023). Hong Kong Unison. https://unison.org.hk/en

Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720–724. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013237CrossRefPubMed

Kane, J. V., & Barabas, J. (2018). No harm in checking: Using factual manipulation checks to assess attentiveness in experiments. American Journal of Political Science, 63(1), 234–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12396CrossRef

Kang, Y., Gray, J. R., & Dovidio, J. F. (2014). The nondiscriminating heart: Lovingkindness meditation training decreases implicit intergroup bias. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1306–1313. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034150CrossRefPubMed

Khema, A. (2012). Metta by Ayya Khema. Leigh Brasington’s Web Site. Retrieved Janurary 10, 2020, from https://www.leighb.com/ayyametta.htm

Kobayashi, T. (2020). Depolarization through social media use: Evidence from dual identifiers in Hong Kong. New Media & Society, 22(8), 1339–1358. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820910124CrossRef

Kreplin, U., Farias, M., & Brazil, I. A. (2018). The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20299-z

Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Leiberg, S., Klimecki, O., & Singer, T. (2011). Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game. PLoS ONE, 6(3), e17798. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017798CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Link, B. G., Cullen, F. T., Frank, J., & Wozniak, J. F. (1987). The social rejection of former mental patients: Understanding why labels matter. American Journal of Sociology, 92(6), 1461–1500. https://doi.org/10.1086/228672CrossRef

Mackie, D. M., Devos, T., & Smith, E. R. (2000). Intergroup emotions: Explaining offensive action tendencies in an intergroup context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(4), 602–616. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.4.602CrossRefPubMed

Moore-Berg, S. L., Hameiri, B., & Bruneau, E. (2020). The prime psychological suspects of toxic political polarization. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34, 199–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.001CrossRef

Morris, S. B. (2008). Estimating effect sizes from pretest-posttest-Control group designs. Organizational Research Methods, 11(2), 364–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106291059CrossRef

Nelson Mandela Foundation. (2000). Speeches by Nelson Mandela. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://www.mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/2000/001206_healing.htm

Neubaum, G., Sobieraj, S., Raasch, J., & Riese, J. (2020). Digital destigmatization: How exposure to networking profiles can reduce social stereotypes. Computers in Human Behavior, 112, 106461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106461CrossRef

O’Connor, P. (2018). Ethnic minorities and ethnicity in Hong Kong (Vol. 259-274). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660530-16CrossRef

Omoto, A. M., Malsch, M., & Barraza, J. A. (2009). Compassionate acts: Motivations for and correlates of volunteerism among older adults. In B. Fehr, S. Sprecher, & L. G. Underwood (Eds.), The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444303070.ch9CrossRef

Paolini, S., Harris, N. C., & Griffin, A. S. (2015). Learning anxiety in interactions with the outgroup: Towards a learning model of anxiety and stress in intergroup contact. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 19(3), 275–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430215572265CrossRef

Paolini, S., Harwood, J., Hewstone, M., & Neumann, D. L. (2018). Seeking and avoiding intergroup contact: Future frontiers of research on building social integration. Social and Personality Psychology. Compass, 12(12). https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12422

Parks, S., Birtel, M. D., & Crisp, R. J. (2014). Evidence that a brief meditation exercise can reduce prejudice toward homeless people. Social Psychology, 45(6), 458–465. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000212CrossRef

Pew Research Center. (2019). Race in America 2019. Retrieved May 06, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/

Porges, S. W. (2017). Vagal Pathways: Portals to Compassion. In E. M. Seppälä, E. Simon-Thomas, S. L. Brown, M. C. Worline, C. D. Cameron, & J. R. Doty (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of compassion science. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190464684.001.0001CrossRef

Research Office of Legislative Council Secretariat. (2017). Fact Sheet - Poverty of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong (FS08/16-17). Legislative Council Secretariat https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1617fs08-poverty-of-ethnic-minorities-in-hong-kong-20170608-e.pdf

Schumer, M. C., Lindsay, E. K., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Brief mindfulness training for negative affectivity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(7), 569–583. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000324CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Sheeran, P. (2005). Intention-behavior relations: A conceptual and empirical review. European Review of Social Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013478.ch1

Simonsson, O., Narayanan, J., & Marks, J. (2022). Love thy (partisan) neighbor: Brief befriending meditation reduces affective polarization. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(6), 1577–1593. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302211020108CrossRef

Sinclair, L., Fehr, B., Wang, W., & Regehr, E. (2015). The relation between compassionate love and prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 176–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615609736CrossRef

Smith, E. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2016). Group-level emotions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11, 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.04.005CrossRef

SoCO. (2018). Society for Community Organization. https://soco.org.hk/en/

Stell, A. J., & Farsides, T. (2016). Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9514-xCrossRef

Stephan, W. G., Boniecki, K. A., Ybarra, O., Bettencourt, A., Ervin, K. S., Jackson, L. A., McNatt, P. S., & Renfro, C. L. (2002). The role of threats in the racial attitudes of blacks and whites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(9), 1242–1254. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672022812009CrossRef

Strauss, C., Lever Taylor, B., Gu, J., Kuyken, W., Baer, R., Jones, F., & Cavanagh, K. (2016). What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004CrossRefPubMed

Underwood, L. G. (2009). Compassionate love: A framework for research. In B. Fehr, S. Sprecher, & L. G. Underwood (Eds.), The science of compassionate love: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 3–25). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444303070.ch1CrossRef

United Nations. (2018). Prejudice and discrimination: Barriers to social inclusion (Social Development Brief #4). https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2018/02/RWSS-Policy-Brief-Option-4_6Feb.pdf

Varra, A. A., Drossel, C., & Hayes, S. C. (2009). The use of metaphor to establish acceptance and mindfulness. In F. Didonna (Ed.), Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09593-6_8CrossRef

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Shackman, A. J., Stodola, D. E., Caldwell, J. Z., Olson, M. C., Rogers, G. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1171–1180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537CrossRefPubMed

Wong, K. C. (2018). Public order policing in Hong Kong: The Mongkok riot. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98672-2

Yu, B. C., Mak, W. W., Leung, I. W., & Chio, F. H. (2021). Reducing stigma through interconnectedness and compassion: A Buddhism-based approach to reduce stigma toward people with mental illness. Mindfulness, 12(7), 1779–1790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01640-6CrossRef

Zhang, J. W., Chen, S., & Tomova Shakur, T. K. (2019). From me to you: Self-compassion predicts acceptance of own and others’ imperfections. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(2), 228–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219853846CrossRefPubMed

Titel: Brief Compassion Training Reduces Intergroup Psychological Barriers: An Experimental Study
Auteurs: Jackie C. K. Chow
Winnie W. S. Mak
Larry Auyeung
Publicatiedatum: 17-10-2023
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Mindfulness / Uitgave 11/2023
Print ISSN: 1868-8527
Elektronisch ISSN: 1868-8535
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02230-4

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Objectives

Method

Results

Conclusions

Preregistration

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Andere artikelen Uitgave 11/2023

Preliminary Evaluation of Learning to BREATHE PLUS for University Students: Does a Multi-Modal Adaptive Supplement Strengthen Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention?

Effects and Feasibility of a Mindfulness-Based Guqin Music Intervention During Pregnancy on Postpartum Anxiety and Depression: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Experienced Meditators Show Multifaceted Attention-Related Differences in Neural Activity

Perceived Parenting Style and Adolescent Self-Compassion: A Longitudinal, Within-Person Approach

Correction to: Increases in External Sensory Observing Cross‑Sectionally Mediate the Repair of Positive Affect Following Mindfulness‑Based Cognitive Therapy in Individuals with Residual Depression Symptoms

Training the Moral Self: An 8-Week Mindfulness Meditation Program Leads to Reduced Dishonest Behavior and Increased Regulation of Interoceptive Awareness