Social rejection is painful and can lead to violence. Mindfulness may provide a solution.

People who have greater levels of mindfulness - or the tendency to maintain attention on and awareness of the present moment - are better able to cope with the pain of being rejected by others, according to a new study led by a team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.

"Social rejection can have a number of negative outcomes both for the rejected person's own health and well-being, as well as their interpersonal relationships," said lead author Alexandra Martelli, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences. "Therefore it is critical that researchers find adaptive ways at responding to social rejection, and mindfulness may be one effective emotion regulation strategy."

The study, "When Less is More: Mindfulness Predicts Adaptive Affective Responding to Rejection via Reduced Prefrontal Recruitment," will be published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Read a summary of the results here.