Increase in Costly Help-Giving Toward a Stereotyped Group After Mindfulness Intervention

Abstract

Studies showed that mindfulness practice increases help-giving, however, there are still unanswered questions regarding the validation of this effect in different contexts. In this study, we aimed to understand the effect of mindfulness practice on costly giving and attitudes toward a stereotyped group and to test whether this effect depends on baseline empathy and self-regulation. Undergraduate students (N = 170) completed baseline questionnaires and were randomly assigned to two sessions of mindfulness, music, or lecture conditions. We found that mindfulness increased the likelihood of donation-giving to a nonprofit HIV organization, relative to control conditions. Mindfulness also strengthened the relationship between empathy and donation-giving but not between self-regulation and donation-giving. The attitude component was similar across conditions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of our institutional committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Seymour Fox School of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem [number 2018/0305]. All participants gave their informed consent before participating in the research.

Transparency and openness

We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions, all manipulations, and all measures in the study. All data, analysis code, and research materials are available at https://osf.io/mbzrp/?view_only=ba18caee11e54da1b22c592160327111. This study’s design and its analysis were not preregistered.