Effects of A Brief Mindfulness Induction on Moral Judgments and Emotions

Study Abstract Mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce negative affect and emotional reactivity in daily life. This research attempts to investigate whether a brief mindfulness induction can reduce emotional reactivity to moral situations, and in turn the harshness of moral judgments. In Study 1, undergraduate participants judged two moral scenarios. Compared to the control induction, the brief mindfulness induction reduced reported emotional intensity to one of the two scenarios. This suggests that the induction may only be effective for certain types of moral transgressions. In Study 2, participants judged either high or low severity transgressions. Although the mindfulness induction reduced emotional intensity for all moral scenarios, it reduced the harshness of act-based judgments (i.e., how wrong the act is) for high, but not low severity transgressions. The present research suggests that brief mindfulness inductions are effective in reducing the harshness of moral judgments and emotional reactivity to more severe moral transgressions. Please contact contributor of data if you need assistance on interpreting the variables in the dataset.