A brief mindfulness intervention reduces the tendency to endorse negative Black stereotypes
Mindfulness practice holds some promise for reducing people’s tendency to use stereotypes
Suggested instructions
This research summary can be incorporated into a lecture or shared with students as a reading to demonstrate how psychological science explores the diversity of human experience. This resource can also be used to encourage students to identify the major components of a research study (i.e., the hypothesis or study question, sample, method, and findings). Students can be asked to identify potential limitations of the study and encouraged to discuss the implications for our understanding of human behavior. Keywords highlight how concepts within and across pillars are incorporated into a single research study.
Research summary
This study examined whether a brief mindfulness meditation could reduce people’s use of racial stereotypes (about both Black people and White people). The researchers also examined whether mindfulness would help reduce the impact of stress on people’s tendency to use stereotypes. Participants in this study were recruited at a university and online. All participants listened to either a 10-minute mindfulness audiotape or a control audiotape (which described an English countryside). They then engaged in either a stressful task (solving difficult math problems in very little time) or a control task (solving simple math tests without time pressure), and then completed a measure assessing their belief in different racial stereotypes.
People in the mindfulness condition were less likely to support stereotypes about Black people than people in the control condition. Mindfulness did not influence people’s likelihood of endorsing stereotypes about White people. However, mindfulness only reduced support of stereotypes about Black people for those who completed the control task. People in the stress condition showed more support for stereotypes in general, and mindfulness did not reduce this effect.
These findings tell us that mindfulness can reduce prejudice and discrimination in certain situations, but perhaps not in stressful situations.
The development of resources to broaden diversity and representation in the teaching of high school psychology resources is an APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools initiative supported by funding from the American Psychological Foundation David and Carol Myers Fund. This resource was developed by Eric Castro, Shawn C.T. Jones, PhD, Allyn Olsen, and Catherine Sanderson, PhD.
