Brief Mindfulness Instruction Predicts Anonymous Prosocial Helping of an Ostracized Racial Outgroup Member

Abstract

Training in mindfulness has been found to enhance interpersonal benefits (e.g., gratitude, forgiveness, empathy, compassion). Here, we ask if these interpersonal benefits extend to intergroup contexts. Two experiments (n = 256) tested whether brief mindfulness instruction predicted higher prosocial helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. In Study 1, mindfulness instruction, relative to active and inactive controls, predicted higher helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member in a private (but not in a public) context. State empathic concern did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness training and private helping behavior. In Study 2, which involved greater anonymity, mindfulness instruction predicted higher private and public helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. Empathic concern statistically mediated the relationship between mindfulness training and public, but not private, helping. Together these two studies indicate that, in a relatively anonymous context, brief mindfulness instruction predicts higher empathic concern and helping behavior toward an ostracized racial outgroup member. Discussion focuses on implications and limitations of mindfulness for intergroup prosociality.