Mindfully outraged: Mindfulness increases deontic retribution for third-party injustice

Abstract

Mindfulness is known to temper negative reactions by both victims and perpetrators of injustice. Accordingly, critics claim that mindfulness numbs people to injustice, raising concerns about its moral implications. Examining how mindful observers respond to third-party injustice, we integrate mindfulness with deontic justice theory to propose that mindfulness does not numb but rather enlivens people to injustice committed by others against others. Results from three studies show that mindfulness heightens moral outrage in witnesses of injustice, particularly when the injustice is only moderate. Although these findings did not replicate with a mindfulness induction, post-hoc analysis in a fourth study reveals that measured state mindfulness perhaps heightens moral outrage when observers have a weak deontic justice orientation. In documenting this moral enlivening effect, we demonstrate that mindfulness – measured as a state or trait – leads people to exact greater deontic retribution against perpetrators of third-party injustice.