A brief induction of loving kindness meditation to reduce anti-fat bias.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Two randomized experimental trials testing loving kindness meditation interventions against controls.
PubMed 38900806 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0302039
What was done
Two randomized experiments tested a brief loving kindness meditation (LKM) intervention to reduce weight stigma. Experiment 1 tested whether random assignment to LKM (directed at a higher-weight close other vs. stranger) reduced explicit and implicit anti-fat bias and increased empathy relative to control. Experiment 2 compared LKM against an empathy intervention and a control condition on empathy and stigmatizing behavior.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical statistics, sample sizes, or effect sizes. LKM increased empathic care but failed to reduce explicit or implicit anti-fat bias compared to control. In unadjusted analyses, LKM (but not the empathy intervention) yielded greater empathy than control. Participants assigned to either the LKM or the empathy intervention engaged in more stigmatizing behavior than those in the control group.
Why it matters
These findings challenge the assumption that empathy-building exercises reduce prejudice, demonstrating that brief loving kindness meditation failed to diminish anti-fat bias and was associated with increased stigmatizing behavior.
Limits
The abstract omits sample size, participant demographics, intervention details, and all numerical data (point estimates, confidence intervals, p-values). Long-term effects and real-world behavioral outcomes beyond brief experimental measures were not reported.
Cited by
- contradicts Compassion meditation training leads to significant reductions in implicit bias that are sustained for at least 6 months after the practice period ends.