Mindfulness Practices Moderate the Association Between Intergroup Anxiety and Outgroup Attitudes

Mindfulness and intergroup bias: A systematic review

“…Finally, Price-Blackshear et al (2017) found that greater engagement in mindfulness practices attenuated the relationship between intergroup anxiety and explicit outgroup biases among a sample of Indian undergraduates reporting attitudes toward religious outgroups, and among a U.S. MTurk sample reporting attitudes toward racial outgroups. This may reflect increased emotion regulation among those with mindfulness meditation experience, which in turn reduces negative attitudes toward outgroups.…”

“…Although the magnitude of the effect size was similar to those for the other operationalizations of mindfulness, it is likely that the small number of studies in this category failed to provide sufficient statistical power. Consistent with Parks et al’s (2014) study using a brief induction, intergroup anxiety was identified as playing a role in reducing intergroup bias among those engaging in mindfulness practices (Price-Blackshear et al, 2017). Additionally, empathy mediated the relationship between meditation experience and self-reported racial bias (Hunsinger et al, 2014).…”

“…Four eligible reports assessed intergroup bias among experienced meditators (with no mindfulness intervention or induction; see Table 3). Three of these compared experienced meditators to nonmeditators, but the fourth (Price-Blackshear et al, 2017) assessed meditation experience as a continuous variable (i.e., ranging from no or low engagement to high levels of engagement). Schimchowitsch and Rohmer (2016) asked meditators and nonmeditators to complete an evaluative priming task involving the categorization of evaluative words following subliminal disability primes.…”

“…Perhaps partially explaining these disparate findings, one set of studies suggests that dispositional mindfulness moderates the relationship between intergroup processes and intergroup bias. In two studies, Price-Blackshear and Bettencourt (2020) found that dispositional mindfulness moderated the relationship between race-related system justification and negative ethnic attitudes among high-status ethnic groups (see also Niemiec et al, 2010). For those low in dispositional mindfulness, greater system justification was associated with more negative outgroup attitudes, but for participants reporting moderate or high levels of mindfulness, this relationship was mitigated.…”

“…Researchers examine the influence of mindfulness by employing a variety of intergroup bias assessments, including implicit, explicit, and behavioral measures. Self-report measures assess explicit intergroup attitudes (e.g., feeling thermometers; Kang et al, 2014), intergroup anxiety (e.g., Price-Blackshear et al, 2017), and intergroup contact intentions (e.g., Parks et al, 2014). Participants’ concerns regarding social desirability and societal norms, of course, may make it difficult to adequately assess their actual attitudes and intentions (Nosek et al, 2012; Plant & Devine, 1998).…”