A quiet mind in a noisy, fast-paced world is something akin to a superpower, and meditation can give you that. However, silencing the mind is only one of its many benefits. New and ongoing scientific research is constantly revealing more, and this can be seen in a new ETH Zurich study, which sought to discover the impact mindfulness meditation has on decision-making.
The world’s interest in meditation has been increasing at a mind-boggling rate over recent years. Once thought of as a strange, new-age practice, the mainstream now accepts its importance, and it is constantly being championed by many leading medical practitioners and scientists.
This increased interest is leading to a constant stream of new scientific studies into the good it can bring, with one of the latest being a study led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich.
Over the years, numerous studies have confirmed many of the health benefits the practice brings, including reducing stress and depression and improving concentration and productivity. However, meditation’s locker has many more benefits still awaiting discovery.
The ETH Zurich Study
ETH Zurich researchers, led by Elliott Ash, Professor of Law, Economics, and Data Science at ETH Zurich, wanted to see whether Mindfulness meditation could help combat negative emotions.
It is well-known that when it comes to decision-making, individuals are more likely to avoid information that could lead to a negative outcome, even if it is freely available. It goes without saying that avoiding information makes it more difficult for an individual to make an informed or good decision.
Anticipatory emotions that lead to worry or regret do play a significant role in information avoidance, and the study sought to establish if mental training through mindfulness meditation could help.
For the study, the research team gathered 216 participants from the UK, who were recruited via an online platform. The researchers pre-screened the participants, choosing only those who answered “No” to the question, “Do you meditate?”.
The participants were randomly separated into two groups, allocated to either a treatment intervention (14 days of 15-minute guided mindfulness meditations) or an active control intervention (14 days of 15-minute guided relaxing-music listening.
The instructor for the Mindfulness Mediation led the participants through three stages of meditation:
- Bringing awareness to now (noticing what is happening outside and how you are).
- Mindful breathing (being aware of the breath and cultivating an attitude of non-judgment as thoughts arise).
- And a body scan (expanding this awareness from the breath to the entire body).
After this, the participants had some time to sit and consider their feelings before the instructor ended the session.
The same instructor led the Music Intervention sessions. For this, participants were given a short introduction, details of the artist/album, etc., and a famous quote about the music for contemplation before the music started.
After each session, participants were asked to answer questions, such as if they wanted to receive potentially negative information about their health, financial investments, or personal relationships.
The conclusion
At the end of the fourteen-day study, the authors concluded that mindfulness meditation does make people more resilient to uncomfortable emotions and allows them to process negative information more objectively. In simple terms, mindful meditation helps people to make better, more informed decisions.
Professor Ash stated the study participants who meditated every day for two weeks were better equipped to observe their negative emotions and accept them calmly, and the same was not observed in members of the control group.
The researchers went on to state that ‘evidence shows that mindfulness is able to reduce information avoidance, but more work is needed to test its effects on cognitive biases.’
Link to the study paper: Ash E, Sgroi D, Tuckwell A, Zhuo S. Mindfulness Reduces Information Avoidance, Economics Letters, 224: 110997, doi: external page 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.110997
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