Motivating Engagement with Social Justice Issues through Compassion Training: A Multi-Method Randomized Control Trial

As the racial and political polarizations deepen across the country and around the globe, we face many complex social justice issues requiring difficult intergroup dialogue. To address such polarization productively, members from all sides need to practice empathic understanding and compassion towards out-group members, even in the face of challenging emotions surrounding social justice issues. Yet, empathic and behavioral engagement in the context of social justice issues is emotionally and cognitively demanding, and thus is often avoided. It is, however, possible to offset high costs/demands of social justice situations and motivate an approach-oriented response by increasing resources, namely social resources. Meditation trainings that cultivate compassion (a warm feeling for the suffering of others with the motivation to help) have been shown to expand social resources by increasing perceived social connection. This study investigates (1) the effect of a two-week compassion training (vs. active control) on White participants’ prosocial engagement (i.e., outgroup empathy, approach/avoidance physiology, willingness to engage in social justice dialogue, and helping behavior) in a situation where social disparity issue is highlighted; and (2) whether such effects occur through an expansion of perceived social resources. Participants’ prosocial engagement and perceived social resources will be measured before and after training in a novel laboratory paradigm involving behavioral,
physiological, and self-report assessments of prosocial engagement. This work will have important practical and theoretical implications by advancing our understanding of the processes through which compassion training shapes prosocial outcomes in a social justice context that is highly relevant to today’s society.