Exploring meditation and biased emotional responses to counter-attitudinal persuasive messages

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been shown to improve emotional regulation (Teper, Segal, & Inzlicht, 2013) and therefore may reduce negative emotional states experienced in response to a counter-attitudinal persuasive message. Loving kindness meditation (LKM) has been shown to increase positive emotions (Stell & Farside, 2015) and therefore may counteract negative emotions produced by these messages. Research has shown a link between types of meditation and a reduction in other types of bias (Hafrenbrack, Kinians, & Barsade, 2014; Stell & Farside, 2015). The goal of the present study was to explore the emotional mechanism underlying biased reactions to counter-attitudinal information and the ability of MM to regulate this emotional reaction and LKM to counteract this emotional reaction and therefore decrease bias. Results are discussed in terms of effectiveness of the meditation and persuasion manipulations and possibilities for further research.