A kind mind: effects of compassion-based meditation on prosocial intergroup outcomes in a South African pilot sample.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2025 Adala M Prevost, Michal George, Melike M Fourie 1 citation
Eight weeks of compassion-based meditation in a White South African sample was associated with increased life satisfaction, reduced stress, greater compassion for outgroups, less desire for social distance, reduced racial prejudice, more intergroup contact, and stronger support for collective action and restitutive government policies. Participants also reported broadened compassion and affiliation with strangers, indicating enhanced self-transcendence. These results suggest that compassion meditation may improve intergroup relations in post-apartheid South Africa, though the pilot study lacked a control group and a randomized controlled trial is needed.