Visual detection of threat and rapid decisions to "shoot": Can mindfulness-based meditation practices improve signal detection accuracy and reduce implicit racial bias?
David Henry Peterzell
Journal of Vision August 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.9.5846 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pilot experimental study Randomized Pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 8 |
| Population | Caucasian participants, including two retired policemen |
| Duration | Four FPST administrations; between administrations, four 6-minute recordings |
| Measures | first-person shooter task (FPST), d' |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | After four administrations of the first-person shooter task, the four participants who listened to 6-minute LovingKindness meditation recordings between sessions each improved overall accuracy (d') and reduced anti-Black/pro-White racial bias on average and relative to four controls. All eight participants initially showed considerable implicit pro-White/anti-Black bias. The authors describe these as very preliminary results. |
Abstract
Three findings motivated this study. First, "decision to shoot" research has provided robust evidence of visual racial bias in police officers and the US population (Payne & Correll, 2020). In threat detection experiments, patterns of hit rates, false alarm rates, and reaction times show that typical participants "shoot" an armed target more frequently and quickly when that visual target is Black rather than White. However, participants decide "not to shoot" an unarmed target more frequently and quickly when the target is White rather than Black. Second, various mindfulness meditation practices reduce racial biases on the classic Implicit Association Test (Leuke & Gibson, 2015; Stell & Farsides, 2016; Korsmo, 2019). Third, meditation practices improve visual detection, discrimination, and sustained attention under some conditions (MacLean et al. 2010). In this pilot study, eight Caucasian participants completed four administrations of Correll's online "first-person shooter task" (FPST; Correll et al., 2002). During the task, images appeared for 1-sec of men holding either a weapon or a non-weapon (randomized: White, armed; White, unarmed; Black, armed; Black, unarmed). Within each 1-second trial window, observers had 630 ms to "shoot" or "not shoot" by pressing one of two keys. Between the four FPST administrations, four participants (including a retired policeman) heard 6-minute recordings of a LovingKindness (LKM) meditation. Four others (including another retired policeman) heard 6-minute recordings of a meditation lecture without meditation practice (control group, Korsmo, 2019). On the first administration, all 8 participants demonstrated considerable implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias. After four FPST administrations, each of the 4 LKM participants improved overall accuracy (d') and reduced anti-Black/pro-White racial bias on average AND relative to four controls. Can contemplative practices reduce implicit or unconscious racial bias and improve visual detection accuracy when real rapid life-or-death appraisals are required? These very preliminary experimental results will motivate further study.
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 |