Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Triggers a Long-term Shift Toward More Positive Appraisals of Emotional Ambiguity
Nicholas R. Harp, Jonathan B. Freeman, Maital Neta
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction |
| Duration | 8-week intervention, 8-week follow-up |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Mindfulness training promotes a long-lasting shift toward positivity bias in interpreting ambiguous emotional signals, uniquely supported by reduced emotional reactivity. |
Abstract
Reducing negative impacts of stress, for example through mindfulness training, benefits physical and psychological well-being, and is becoming ever more crucial due to large-scale societal uncertainties (e.g., COVID-19). While extensive research has focused on mindfulness-related reductions in self-reported negativity, essentially no research has targeted task-based behavioral outcomes throughout long-term mindfulness trainings. Responses to emotionally ambiguous signals (e.g., surprised expressions), which might be appraised as either positive or negative, provide a nuanced assessment of one’s emotional bias across diverse contexts, offering unique leverage for assessing the effects of mindfulness. Here, we compared the effects of short- and long-term training via Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on ratings of faces with a relatively clear (angry, happy) and ambiguous (surprised) valence. Ratings became more positive for ambiguity from the start (Week 1) to end of training (Week 8; p < .001), but there were no short-term effects (from a single class session). This shift towards positivity continued through an additional eight-week follow-up (Week 16; p < .001). Notably, post-training valence bias (Week 8) was uniquely predicted by the non-reactivity facet of mindfulness (p = .01). Together, mindfulness promotes a relatively long-lasting shift toward positivity bias, which is uniquely supported by reduced emotional reactivity.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |