Scientifically Proven Reasons For Why Lawyers Should Practice Mindfulness

There are many reasons for why mindfulness practices can benefit everyone, not just lawyers. However, in doing research for a Forbes article, I came across a body of research that is especially applicable for lawyers: mindfulness reduces implicit bias. According to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), implicit bias is defined as:

[b]ias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes (e.g., implicit attitudes and implicit stereotypes) that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.

Implicit bias plays a role when it comes to hiring, training, and maintaining talents. Humans are naturally most comfortable with others that look and speak like themselves and share similar backgrounds. So, if you’re a white male partner, looking to hire or mentor a younger lawyer, you’re more likely to prefer an attorney from your alma mater, who perhaps grew up in the same geographic location, and of course, shares your race and gender.

The difficulty with implicit bias is that it runs under your consciousness. Therefore, it’s difficult to recognize and correct. However, a new body of research indicates that mindfulness may reduce, or in some cases, eliminate implicit bias.

Mindfulness meditation focuses the individual on the present and encourages practitioners to view thoughts and feelings nonjudgmentally as mental events, rather than as part of the self. This allows the individual to understand and reflect on these events as transient moments that are separate from the self, which inhibits the natural tendency toward reaction and automatic evaluation (Bishop et al., 2004).

On a practical level, this involves a daily practice of meditation, and a continual focus on what is happening in this moment. It’s a tool that we can use to be more self-aware, to respond from a place of calm, and to cultivate empathy.

In a 2015 Central Michigan University study by Professor Adam Lueke, participants listened to either a mindfulness or a control audio. Professor Leuke’s team then administered implicit association tests (IATs). IAT is designed to detect the strength of a person’s automatic association between mental representations of objects — in this case, implicit bias against blacks or older people. Professor Leuke wanted to see if mindfulness can reduce automatic social cognition, implicit out-group bias.

Results showed that brief mindfulness meditation increased the state of mindfulness and reduced implicit race and age bias. Specifically, listening to a 10-minute audiotape that focused the individual and made them more aware of their sensations and thoughts in a nonjudgmental way caused them to show less implicit bias against blacks and older people on the race and age IATs than individuals who listened to a 10-minute audiotape describing historical events and geographical landmarks.

In a follow-up study, Professor Leuke took these results a step further to see if the same mindfulness intervention could affect conscious behavior as well. Research participants played a game that measured trust levels. Essentially, participants looked at a bunch of pictures of various people of different races and gauged how much they trusted them to help them win money in the game, or potentially steal the money away from them. Control participants trusted white interaction partners far more than black ones, but the mindfulness group trusted both groups almost identically.

This area of study has an obvious implication and benefits not only for law firms, but also our court system.

As Judge Chris McAliley, U.S. Magistrate Judge of the Southern District of Florida wrote in this Florida Bar Journal article:

Importantly, mindfulness practice is not about eliminating wise discernment; but it is about minimizing prejudgment. With this, judges can better deliver procedural fairness. For example, much has been written about bias, that is, attitudes and stereotypes that often operate outside our conscious awareness, and research is pointing to the role mindfulness may play in bringing them to light, clarifying our perception. When a judge is able to whole-heartedly pay attention, without the distortion of habit, bias, or assumptions, that judge is more likely to treat people, and manage a courtroom, in a manner that encourages confidence in our system of justice.

Fortunately, the practice of mindfulness need not take hours per day, or require you to check yourself into an Ashram in India (although, you certainly can). All that is needed to start a mindfulness practice is simply your attention and a commitment. Take a look at this short guide on where to start.

Do you practice mindfulness? What benefits have you noticed? Please drop me an email and let me know [email protected] or on Twitter @jeena_cho.

---

Jeena Cho is the author of The Anxious Lawyer: An 8-Week Guide to a Joyful and Satisfying Law Practice Through Mindfulness and Meditation (affiliate link). She is a contributor to Forbes and Bloomberg where she covers diversity/inclusion, resilience, work/life integration, and wellness in the workplace. She regularly speaks and offers training on women’s issues, diversity, wellness, stress management, mindfulness, and meditation. You can reach her at[email protected] or @jeena_cho on Twitter.