{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,10]],"date-time":"2026-08-10T04:30:54Z","timestamp":1786336254887,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,10]],"date-time":"2026-08-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786320000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Criminal sentencing attitudes can reflect psychological dispositions concerning agency, hierarchy, blame, and rehabilitation. This exploratory pilot examined whether established contemplative practice is associated with a less punitive profile and whether legal professionals show differences following a four-week Anapana programme. Ninety adults participated in three cohorts: experienced meditators (\n                    <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f30), meditation-na\u00efve controls (\n                    <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f30), and legal professionals or advanced law trainees assessed before and after the programme (\n                    <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f30). The study assessed 21 outcomes: 15 core outcomes covering anxiety, free-will beliefs, aggression, social dominance, just-world beliefs, pretrial juror attitudes, and vignette-based sentencing judgments, plus six additional exploratory outcomes comprising dehumanization and five moral-foundation subscales. The six exploratory outcomes, initially envisaged for a subsequent study, were incorporated during rolling data collection; Group C completed them before beginning the programme and again at post-assessment. All 21 omnibus group comparisons remained significant after false-discovery-rate and Bonferroni correction. The experienced-meditator versus control differences also remained significant after adjustment for exact age and in a sensitivity analysis restricted to the shared 50\u201360-year age range. Following the programme, Group C showed statistically significant pre\u2013post differences on all 21 outcomes (|\n                    <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\n                    _\n                    <jats:italic>z<\/jats:italic>\n                    |\u202f=\u202f1.05\u20133.11). The direction, coherence, and timing of those differences are consistent with a meaningful meditation-related contribution, although the uncontrolled design cannot estimate how much was attributable specifically to Anapana rather than expectancy, repeated testing, demand characteristics, regression to the mean, or other time-related influences. Exploratory indirect-effect analyses did not establish causal mechanisms: only the anxiety-to-aggression model was directionally consistent, while an aggression-to-rehabilitation model showed inconsistent mediation or suppression. No retreat contrast survived multiplicity correction. The findings are therefore best interpreted as hypothesis-generating evidence of a coherent pattern that warrants preregistered, adequately powered randomized trials with concurrently reassessed active controls, behavioural outcomes, and follow-up assessment.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1865426","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,10]],"date-time":"2026-08-10T04:21:45Z","timestamp":1786335705000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Meditation, free-will beliefs, and sentencing attitudes: an exploratory pilot study in India"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Pragya","family":"Mishra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Law, University of Allahabad","place":["Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India"]},{"name":"Center for Justice and Mental Well-Being, Nova Institute for Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Susan L.","family":"Prescott","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Justice and Mental Well-Being, Nova Institute for Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]},{"name":"School of Medicine, University of Western Australia","place":["Perth, WA, Australia"]},{"name":"Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alan C.","family":"Logan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Justice and Mental Well-Being, Nova Institute for Health","place":["Baltimore, MD, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"449","DOI":"10.1525\/nclr.2013.16.3.449","article-title":"How folk beliefs about free will influence sentencing: a new target for the neuro-determinist critics of criminal law","volume":"16","author":"Atiq","year":"2013","journal-title":"New Crim. 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