Imagine you could handle negative information better just by sitting quietly for a few minutes every day.
Researchers from ETH Zurich have found that daily mindfulness meditation can help people deal with unpleasant news more effectively.
Ignoring Negative Information: A Common Bias
When making decisions, we often need to gather all the facts and weigh the pros and cons. However, due to cognitive bias, many people tend to ignore potentially negative information.
They might avoid knowing whether an investment isn’t profitable anymore, or if a medical test has confirmed an illness. The reason is fear—just thinking about negative information can trigger worry and unease.
Meditation to the Rescue
Elliott Ash, Professor of Law, Economics, and Data Science at ETH Zurich, conducted a study showing that daily mindfulness meditation can reduce this tendency to avoid negative information.
Mindfulness meditation involves sitting still with eyes closed and simply observing your breath, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions without reacting to them.
Studies have shown that meditating for as little as 15 minutes a day can relieve stress, increase concentration, lower the risk of depression, and boost productivity.
In Ash’s study, participants who meditated every day for two weeks were better able to handle their negative emotions.
“They were better equipped to simply observe their negative emotions and accept them calmly,” Ash explains. This ability wasn’t seen in the control group.
How Meditation Improves Decision Making
The study suggests that mindfulness meditation helps people deal with uncomfortable emotions, which in turn lets them process negative information more objectively.
This ability can lead to better decision-making, as meditators are more likely to consider all the information, even if some of it is negative.
About the Study
For their study, the researchers recruited 261 participants through an online platform. They randomly divided them into two groups.
One group meditated every day for 15 minutes, while the other group spent that time listening to relaxing music.
Before and after the experiment, participants answered standardized questions to determine how they handled negative information and how they reacted to emotions.
The study is published in the journal Economics Letters.
In conclusion, daily mindfulness meditation could be a simple and effective tool to help us handle negative emotions and make better, more informed decisions.
If you care about mental health, please read studies that high doses of common depression drug could switch off the brain, and Vitamin D could help reduce depression symptoms.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that fermented foods and fiber could help you reduce stress, and MIND diet could improve cognitive health in older people.
The study was published in Economics Letters.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
