From Dissonance to Compassion: Does a Loving-Kindness Meditation Amplify Joy Mimicry and Attenuate Reactive Frowns to Disgust?

From Dissonance to Compassion: Does a Loving-Kindness Meditation Amplify Joy Mimicry and Attenuate Reactive Frowns to Disgust? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article From Dissonance to Compassion: Does a Loving-Kindness Meditation Amplify Joy Mimicry and Attenuate Reactive Frowns to Disgust? Heidi Mauersberger, Till Kastendieck, Daniel Huppertz, Patrysya Lacorte, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7573604/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Emotional mimicry—the imitation of others’ emotions—fosters social bonding, but only when an affiliative emotion aligns with its context. We tested whether a brief Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM) could broaden affiliative responsiveness to both congruent and incongruent emotional displays. In an online study (N = 214), participants watched targets expressing joy or disgust in scenes that were either contextually congruent (e.g., smiling at a funny clip, showing disgust at a disgusting clip) or incongruent (e.g., smiling at a disgusting clip, showing disgust at a funny clip). Facial muscle activity was recorded via OpenFace and subjective ratings of closeness and appropriateness were obtained. We found mimicry combined with high closeness ratings only for joy in a matching context, whereas incongruent and antagonistic displays evoked disapproval rather than affiliation. Critically, LKM increased mimicry to congruent joy and reduced frowning responses to incongruent disgust, without altering appropriateness judgments or perceived closeness. These findings demonstrate that even a brief LKM can selectively boost mimicry of context-appropriate affiliative emotions and temper reactive disapproval when negativity violates social norms, highlighting LKM’s potential to foster empathy in emotionally discordant situations. Emotional Mimicry Loving-Kindness Meditation Contextual Congruence Affiliative Emotions Antagonistic Emotions Reactive Facial Expressions Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 29 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 28 Sep, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 10 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 09 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7573604","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":525290025,"identity":"eb06c258-1524-4b0c-b6b2-d301b9ade508","order_by":0,"name":"Heidi 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