Recent research suggests that even short periods of contemplative practice can boost empathy and prosociality, fueling hope for a more compassionate society. Yet, contemplative practitioners sometimes promote narrow-minded views. For instance, over 500 million evangelicals practice speaking in tongues, a contemplative activity reported to increase empathy and social engagement by fostering selflessness and positive emotions. Yet, studies indicate that white evangelicals engage in more insular forms of community engagement than their black counterparts, contributing to contemporary political polarization. We will compare the social effects of prayer in two central California charismatic churches, one predominantly white and the other predominantly black. In addition to community-based participant observation and micro-phenomenological interviews, we will conduct an experimental study with 35 individuals from each church to assess how prayer impacts empathic and prosocial responses to people both within and external to their community. Furthermore, we will compare prayer intended to foster compassion with prayer more generally intended to connectwith God. Combining interviews, ethnography, autonomic measures and socioemotional tasks, our study will elucidate how different racial contexts shape the impact of contemplative practice on empathy and prosociality.
Varela Grant
