A brief induction of loving kindness meditation to reduce anti-fat bias.
PloS one – January 01, 2024
Source: PubMed
Summary
Loving kindness meditation (LKM) shows promise for increasing empathy but falls short in reducing weight stigma. In a sample of 300 participants, LKM significantly boosted feelings of empathic care compared to control groups, yet did not diminish anti-fat bias. While those engaging in LKM reported higher empathy levels than controls, both LKM and empathy interventions led to increased stigmatizing behavior. These findings indicate that while LKM fosters compassion, it may not effectively combat negative attitudes toward individuals with higher weight.
Abstract
Weight stigma is highly prevalent. However, existing weight stigma interventions are only modestly effective at reducing anti-fat attitudes. The current research proposes a novel approach using a loving kindness meditation (LKM). Experiment 1 tests whether random assignment to the LKM intervention reduces explicit and implicit anti-fat bias and increases empathy based on the LKM recipient with higher weight (close other vs. stranger). Experiment 2 tests whether LKM outperforms an empathy intervention or control to increase empathy or reduce stigmatizing behavior. Results revealed that the LKM increased empathic care but did not reduce anti-fat bias compared to control; the LKM intervention, but not the empathy intervention, reported greater empathy compared to control in unadjusted analyses; and participants in the LKM and empathy interventions (vs. control) were more likely to engage in stigmatizing behavior. These findings suggest that the LKM may not be effective at reducing weight stigma despite increasing empathy.