MINDFULNESS IN POLITICS: EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF MINDFULNESS ON HOW PARTISANS THINK ABOUT OTHERS AND THEMSELVES

Abstract

Americans continuously harbor a greater dislike for the opposing political party (Finkel et al., 2020). This study was sent to the University of Arizona students to examine whether a brief mindfulness meditation exercise can decrease levels of affective polarization and if such a decrease can be explained because mindfulness encourages people to define themselves less by the political party they identify with. In doing so, the findings help further the debate as to whether actual political beliefs or arbitrary group attachment explain why people dislike the other party so much. The study also evaluated how affective polarization may impact other political tendencies, specifically support for political compromise and open-mindedness. Much of the results, perhaps due to the study’s small sample size, were surprising. For instance, those randomly assigned to the mindfulness meditation were actually more likely to dislike the opposing political party. The study further provides evidence that solutions aimed at decreasing polarization in the country cannot be quick fixes. Rather, there must be big changes to fix how we engage with others in the political arena.