From Hostility to Understanding: Can a Brief Loving-Kindness Meditation Amplify Affective Empathy and Attenuate Hostile Attributions Toward Norm-Violating Social Behavior?
Open MIND June 25, 2026 Moritz-Maximilian Harbig, Heidi Mauersberger
This preregistered online experiment (n ≈ 200) investigates whether a brief Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), compared to an active breath-focus control condition, increases affective empathy and reduces hostile attribution bias (HAB) toward persons depicted in ambiguous norm-violating social situations. Stimulus materials consist of 12 vignettes paired with standardized Anger-Sadness morph...