Who Is Less Likely to Ostracize? Higher Trait Mindfulness Predicts More Inclusionary Behavior.
Eric E Jones, James H Wirth, Alex T Ramsey, Rebecca L Wynsma
Personality & social psychology bulletin June 25, 2018 DOI: 10.1177/0146167218780698 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Series of three studies (survey and experimental) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Employed adults (Study 1) and group participants (Studies 2 and 3) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Social isolation Personality Empathy Interpersonal relations Social perception Attention Adolescent Middle aged Female Young adult Psychological distance Inclusion Exclusion Sources of ostracism |
| Key findings | Higher trait mindfulness was associated with less ostracizing of coworkers and with greater inclusion of an ostracized group member. The authors attribute the greater inclusion to attention rather than empathy, and report that instructions to pay attention and ensure equal inclusion produced responses similar to those of highly mindful participants. |
Abstract
Despite the pain ostracism (being excluded and ignored) causes, researchers have minimally investigated factors related to reducing its occurrence. We investigated the association between higher trait mindfulness (the tendency to be attentive to the present moment) and lower engagement in ostracism. In Study 1, employed adults scoring higher on trait mindfulness reported ostracizing coworkers less. In Study 2, participants possessing higher levels of trait mindfulness demonstrated greater inclusion of a fellow group member being ostracized by others in the group. Results suggested that attention, rather than empathy, was the psychological process responsible for greater inclusion of an ostracized group member by mindful individuals. Study 3 supported this conclusion because participants responded similarly to those high in trait mindfulness when they were instructed to pay attention and ensure all players were included equally. Overall, we found that people with higher levels of trait mindfulness are more attentive to targets of ostracism.
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 |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Psychosomatic Medicine July 1, 2007
- Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion October 1, 2008
- Defining mindfulness by how poorly I think I pay attention during everyday awareness and other intractable problems for psychology's (re)invention of mindfulness: Comment on Brown et al. (2011). Psychological Assessment 2011
- Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Stress and Health March 15, 2010
and 5 more in the library