Responding to uncertain threat: A potential mediator for the effect of mindfulness on anxiety.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders January 1, 2021 Inka Papenfuss, Miriam J. J. Lommen, Christian Grillon et al.
People who are more mindful tend to report less anxiety, and this relationship is partly explained by lower intolerance of uncertainty (IU). In a study of 53 healthy adults, participants completed self-report measures of mindfulness, anxiety, and IU, and also underwent a threat-of-shock task (NPU-threat test) that measured physiological and subjective responses to uncertain threat. IU mediated the effect of mindfulness on some anxiety symptoms. However, physiological and subjective reactions to uncertain threat were largely unrelated to mindfulness, anxiety, or IU. The findings suggest that reactions to uncertainty may help explain how mindfulness reduces anxiety, but the laboratory threat measure did not capture this link.