ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Mindfulness
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1619688
This article is part of the Research TopicApplications of Mindfulness in Media and Communication StudiesView all 15 articles
MINDFULNESS AND MEDIA PROSOCIALITY
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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This study examines how trait mindfulness (a stable characteristic) and state mindfulness (induced through short-or long-term meditation) affect psychological closeness, empathy, and prosocial behavior in response to conflict photojournalism. Across three studies, we find that individuals with higher levels of trait mindfulness show greater empathy and willingness to help, even without prior meditation practice. Short-term mindfulness interventions reduce psychological distance, while longterm training enhances costly prosocial behaviors (e.g., donations, volunteering), though empathy is not necessarily increased. These results suggest that mindfulness, whether innate or trained, can enhance media-driven prosocial responses, with effects varying based on individual traits and intervention duration. The findings contribute to media psychology by revealing how mindfulness shapes the emotional and behavioral impact of war journalism, offering practical implications for ethical media presentation and audience engagement.
Keywords: Trait mindfulness, State mindfulness, media-driven prosociality, war and conflict photojournalism, psychological distance
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cheng, Liu, Zhang, Zhou and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinran Feng, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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