Building Compassion in Mediation only takes 1.25 minutes
Results of an initial study conducted by Mindful Mediation’s Managing Director, Caryn Cridland, as well as Dr Doris McIlwain and Dr Allan Bull at Macquarie University in 2010 revealed that in as little as 1.25 minutes, people could be influenced to make more compassionate decisions when resolving workplace mediation-type scenarios.
The scenarios included common causes of workplace conflict such as sexual harassment, racial discrimination, bullying and harassment.
Participants were divided into three groups. The graph indicates the difference between the Compassion, Mindfulness and Control groups in the study.
Participants in the Compassion group listened to a 1.25 minute induction. Participants in the Mindfulness group listened to a 2.59 minute induction. Participants in the Control group received no induction.
Overall those in the Compassion group displayed more compassion than those in the Mindfulness or Control groups. It was concluded that in some situations people can be influenced to be more compassionate.
Caryn presented this research to Positive 2012 – Australia Third Positive Psychology Conference. She will also present the study to the Third World Congress on Positive Psychology (IPPA 2013) in Los Angeles on 27-30 June 2013.
