Compassion and Person Perception: An Experiment
August 1, 2006 DOI: 10.12794/metadc5347 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial (experiment 1); Solomon four-group experimental design (experiment 2) |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 277 |
| Population | Young adults |
| Intervention | Mindfulness meditation |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | Mindfulness meditation significantly increased compassion compared to a control condition, with no difference between the self-focus-only version and either group. Compassion induced by meditation led to significantly more favorable person perception, and pretesting had no significant effect on posttest ratings. |
Abstract
Compassion is one of the fundamental experiences which signify human existence. Person perception is the constructive process with which we form an opinion or judgment of another person. Two experiments (N =277) were conducted in this study. Experiment 1 examined the effects of a mindfulness meditation on compassion in a large sample of young adults.
Participants: (n =76) were randomly assigned to three groups. Participants in group 1 received the mindfulness meditation, group 2 received an alternate version of the mindfulness meditation (self-focus only), and participants in group 3 were asked to complete an attention task and read a geological text. It was hypothesized that mindfulness meditation is significantly associated with the experience of compassion. Results showed that participants in the experimental group 1 experienced significantly higher levels of compassion compared to participants in the control group 3. The participants in group 2 were not different from experimental group 1 or from control group 3. Gender differences in the effects of meditation on compassion were explored. Different measures yielded conflicting evidence for gender differences in experienced compassion. For the second experiment a Solomon four-group experimental design was employed to examine the possible effects of compassion on person perception.
Participants: (n = 201) were randomly assigned to 4 groups. The effect of pretesting impression formation on posttest performance was investigated. It was hypothesized that compassion has a significant effect on impression formation. The Stouffer's z -method was used to investigate this effect. Results indicated that participants in the experimental groups after completing a mindfulness meditation rated a target person significantly more favorable, compared to participants in the control groups. Results also indicated that pretest had no significant effect on post-test ratings of the impression formation task. Transcendental applications for the inducement and experience of compassion in psychotherapy and the role of compassion in human society are considered. Limitations of this study are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.