From Dissonance to Compassion: Does a Loving-Kindness Meditation Amplify Joy Mimicry and Attenuate Reactive Frowns to Disgust?
Heidi Mauersberger, Till Kastendieck, Daniel Huppertz, Patrysya Lacorte, Patrick F. Kotzur, Ursula Heß
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior June 6, 2026 DOI: 10.1007/s10919-026-00515-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Online experiment Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 214 |
| Population | Online participants |
| Intervention | Loving-Kindness Meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Disgust Mimicry Closeness Imitation Empathy Prosocial behavior Facial expression Sadness Cognitive psychology Feeling Affect linguistics Emotional expression Social cognition Developmental psychology Social perception Synesthesia |
| Key findings | A brief Loving-Kindness Meditation increased mimicry of context-appropriate joy and reduced frowning responses to incongruent disgust, without altering appropriateness judgments or perceived closeness. |
Abstract
Abstract Emotional mimicry—the imitation of others’ emotions—fosters social bonding, but only when an affiliative emotion aligns with its context. We tested whether a brief Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM) could broaden affiliative responsiveness to both congruent and incongruent emotional displays. In an online study (N = 214), participants watched targets expressing joy or disgust in scenes that were either contextually congruent (e.g., smiling at a funny clip, showing disgust at a disgusting clip) or incongruent (e.g., smiling at a disgusting clip, showing disgust at a funny clip). Facial muscle activity was recorded via OpenFace and subjective ratings of closeness and appropriateness were obtained. We found mimicry combined with high closeness ratings only for joy in a matching context, whereas incongruent and antagonistic displays evoked disapproval rather than affiliation. Critically, LKM increased mimicry to congruent joy and reduced frowning responses to incongruent disgust, without altering appropriateness judgments or perceived closeness. These findings demonstrate that even a brief LKM can selectively boost mimicry of context-appropriate affiliative emotions and temper reactive disapproval when negativity violates social norms, highlighting LKM’s potential to foster empathy in emotionally discordant situations.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |