The Effects of Audio-Guided Mindful Meditation on Physical Aggression Perpetration: Is It Effective for Everyone?
Violence and victims July 15, 2026 Thomas J Shaw, Kaitlyn Westerhold, Allison Tobar-Santamaria et al.
A brief, guided mindful meditation exercise reduced aggression among college students with high dispositional mindfulness but not among those with low dispositional mindfulness. One hundred two students completed a shock-based laboratory aggression task after being randomly assigned to either a 15-minute audio-guided meditation or a control condition. Participants with high dispositional mindfulness showed significantly less aggression in the meditation condition compared to the control condition (d = .64). Those with low dispositional mindfulness showed a non-significant increase in aggression in the meditation condition (d = .45). The findings suggest that baseline ability to nonjudgmentally observe the present moment influences whether a brief mindfulness intervention reduces aggression.