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Grant History
PEACE Grant

From barriers to bridges: Investigating contemplative approaches to social justice

Annemarie Gockel, Peggy O’Neill
Topics: Compassion & Empathy | Social Change | Stress & Resilience

Fostering meaningful dialogue about racism and other social justice issues is an urgent need in our increasingly polarized society. We hypothesized that kindness meditation (KM) may help participants maintain social connection, develop compassion, positive affect and altruism, while enabling them to manage the stress, negative affect and bias that can arise and derail these conversations. To test this hypothesis, we assigned undergraduate women to one of three groups where they learned and practiced the critical conversations (CC) model for dialogue on racism and other forms of oppression. The intervention group learned KM as a form of self-care, the comparison group learned psychoeducational strategies for self-care (PE), and the control group (CON) received no intervention. In partial support of hypotheses, the KM group experienced a near significant reduction in negative affect and a significant protective effect against the increase in explicit bias observed in the control group following training. Our remaining hypotheses were not supported. Qualitative analysis of group dialogues and participant feedback showed that the CC model helped participants work together to develop an increasingly complex, nuanced, and intersectional understanding of oppression. Participants shared experiences, developed insights on their experiences, and gained support for disrupting oppression in their own lives.

Annemarie Gockel, PhD

Smith College

Grantee, Reviewer

Annemarie Gockel holds a B.A. in Western Society and Culture from Concordia University, an M.S.W. from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of … MORE

Peggy O’Neill, PhD

Smith College

Grantee

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Mind & Life Institute
  • About
    • Mission and Values
    • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
    • 35 Years
    • Strategy
    • History
    • People
    • Careers
    • Contact
  • Events
    • Dialogues and Conversations
    • Summer Research Institute
    • Mind & Life Connect
    • Inspiring Minds
  • Grants
    • Varela Grants
    • PEACE Grants
    • Contemplative Changemaking Grants
    • Awards
    • Mentoring
  • Online Learning
    • Insights Essays
    • Mind & Life Podcast
    • Online Courses
    • Digital Dialogues
    • Academic Papers
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Documentaries
    • Books
    • Videos
  • Support
    • Why Give
    • Ways to Give
    • Annual Reports
  •