The key role of cognitive fusion linking mindfulness and personality: a cross-sectional study.
Scientific Reports September 23, 2025 Daniel Heppt, Niklas Bergmann, Ingmar Conell et al.
In a cross-sectional sample of 779 meditators (average 6.4 years of practice, 69.8% female), mindfulness mediated the relationship between meditation experience and all five personality traits of the Five Factor Model, with the strongest effect on reducing neuroticism. Cognitive fusion, a measure of psychological flexibility, significantly mediated mindfulness's effect on neuroticism and agreeableness, fully mediated its association with conscientiousness, and revealed a previously unidentified pathway fully mediating the link between mindfulness and extraversion. These results suggest that enhanced cognitive flexibility accounts for much of mindfulness's impact on personality, particularly mental wellbeing.