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Gepubliceerd in: Mindfulness 2/2014

01-04-2014 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Spirituality and Intergroup Harmony: Meditation and Racial Prejudice

Auteurs: Matthew Hunsinger, Robert Livingston, Linda Isbell

Gepubliceerd in: Mindfulness | Uitgave 2/2014

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Abstract

Past research has examined the relationship between religious beliefs and intergroup bias but has not investigated the relationship between specific religious practices and bias. The current work fills this gap by investigating differences in racial prejudice between individuals engaged in an active compassion-based meditation practice and those who have no experience with meditation. We found that a group of experienced compassion-based meditators (from a range of religious traditions) expressed less racial prejudice and more empathy compared to a group of participants who had no experience with meditation, and that differences in prejudice were mediated by empathy. These results suggest that compassion-based meditators express lower levels of explicit, racial prejudice than non-meditators and that these differences are explained by differences in empathy. The implications of our results as well as future directions for research are discussed.
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Metagegevens
Titel
Spirituality and Intergroup Harmony: Meditation and Racial Prejudice
Auteurs
Matthew Hunsinger
Robert Livingston
Linda Isbell
Publicatiedatum
01-04-2014
Uitgeverij
Springer US
Gepubliceerd in
Mindfulness / Uitgave 2/2014
Print ISSN: 1868-8527
Elektronisch ISSN: 1868-8535
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-012-0159-5

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