How do people conceptualize mindfulness?
Geoffrey Haddock, Colin M G Foad, Sapphira Thorne
Royal Society Open Science March 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211366 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Multistudy experimental design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | General public (laypeople) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Attitudes Attributes Mental representations Values |
| Citations | 16 |
| Key findings | People perceive mindfulness and mindful individuals positively, associating them with self-transcendence values, likeability, and moral behavior. |
Abstract
While the concept of mindfulness is ubiquitous, its meaning is ambiguous, with limited knowledge about how it is understood by the general public. Understanding how laypeople perceive mindfulness and mindful people is vital, as it will impact how people interpret and act upon information about mindfulness and mindfulness practices. Study 1 participants evaluated the term mindfulness positively, while Study 2 participants perceived a mindful target positively and as strongly endorsing self-transcendence values (e.g. equality). Study 3 participants learned about an unknown target who was mindful or not. The mindful target was evaluated more positively than the less-mindful target and seen as endorsing different values. Most effects in Studies 1-3 were stronger among more mindful participants. Study 4 assessed visual representations of mindful and less-mindful faces. Visual representations of a mindful face were judged by naive raters as more likeable, possessing higher self-transcendence values and performing more moral behaviours compared with a less-mindful face. The results suggest that how people interpret mindfulness has important consequences and can be used to guide how mindfulness is implemented in response to global challenges.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Mindfulness in Psychosocial Research: An Integrative Literature Review of What is Studied and How International Review of Social Psychology 2025
- Reply: The PHIOMM Framework for Implementing Mindfulness in Public Health, With Groundwork Mindfulness March 1, 2025
- Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda Mindfulness March 1, 2025
- Mindfulness beyond secularization: Beliefs across meditators and non-meditators reflect a consensus on personal development over health and spirituality. PLoS One 2025
Cites 7
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Assessment February 29, 2008
- Mindfulness Interventions Annual Review of Psychology September 30, 2016
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
- Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 26, 2010
and 2 more in the library