Evidence That a Brief Meditation Exercise Can Reduce Prejudice Toward Homeless People
Open accessAbstract
Recent research has shown that integrating social and clinical psychological perspectives can be effective when designing prejudice-interventions, with psychotherapeutic techniques successful at tackling anxiety in intergroup contexts. This research tests whether a single, brief loving-kindness meditation intervention, without containing any reference to the intergroup context, could reduce prejudice. This exercise was selected for its proven positive effects on mental and physical health. We observed that participants who took part in two variations of this meditation exercise (one involving a stranger, the other a homeless person) reported reduced intergroup anxiety, as well as more positive explicit attitudes, and enhanced future contact intentions. We conclude that combining approaches in intergroup relations and psychotherapy could be beneficial to design new interventions to combat prejudice and discrimination.
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Eight included studies used written or recorded meditation instructions.
“A further eight studies used written or recorded meditation instructions13,35,39,42–46.”
From The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2018) · cites this paper as [44]
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The effect of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions: a meta-analytic review
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- Authors
- Parks, S., Birtel, M. D., & Crisp, R. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Kent (GB)
- University of Surrey (GB)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Venue
- Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing Group
- Published
- 2014-11-01
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 458-465
- ISSN
- 1864-9335 (ISSN-L)
- 2151-2590
- OpenAlex
- W1983517726
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 11.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (University of Greenwich) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Research (University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Surrey Research Insight Open Access (The University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- prejudice reduction, homeless people, loving-kindness meditation, intergroup anxiety, explicit attitudes, discrimination, psychotherapeutic interventions
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