This technique, that's intended to create feelings of kindness can also reduce prejudice.The study found that just seven minutes of Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a Buddhist practise that promotes unconditional kindness towards oneself and others, is effective at reducing racial bias.

Lead researcher Alexander Stell said that this indicates that some meditation techniques are about much more than feeling good, and might be an important tool for enhancing inter-group harmony.

LKM is known to engender happiness and kindness to oneself and others through repeating phrases such as `may you be happy and healthy' while visualising a particular person.

Additionally the researchers meas ured levels of positive emotions that were either `other-regarding' (e.g. love, gratitude, awe, elevation) and those that were more selfdirected (e.g. contentment, joy , pride) and found that people doing LKM showed large increases specifically in other-regarding emotions.

These other-regarding emotions were found to be what drives the reduction of bias.