Brief mindfulness practice influences the self-reference effect by caring for others
Jie Leng, Bingqing Ma, Qingke Guo
Scientific Reports December 3, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-31049-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Chinese sample |
| Intervention | Mindfulness intervention |
| Dose | 15-minute |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Distraction Perception Matching statistics Intervention counseling Cognitive psychology Psychotherapist Cognition Affect linguistics Clinical psychology |
| Key findings | A 15-minute mindfulness intervention attenuated the self-reference effect, self-retention, and self-obstruction by enhancing processing efficiency for stranger-related stimuli rather than suppressing self-prioritization. |
Abstract
The self-reference effect (SRE) describes enhanced memory and perception for self-related information. Using a perceptual matching paradigm across three experiments, this study examined the SRE and two associated phenomena in a Chinese sample: self-retention (difficulty updating self-associations) and self-obstruction (interference from self-cues). Study 1 established the basic SRE, revealing comparable advantages for self and friend-related information. Study 2 demonstrated self-retention through performance costs during rule-switching, while Study 3 identified self-obstruction via distraction from task-irrelevant self-cues. A 15-minute mindfulness intervention attenuated all three effects by enhancing processing efficiency for stranger-related stimuli rather than suppressing self-prioritization. These findings suggest mindfulness mitigates SRE through attentional reorientation from self to others, offering new insights into modifiable mechanisms of self-referential processing.
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
Cites 11
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience August 13, 2007
- Effects of Brief and Sham Mindfulness Meditation on Mood and Cardiovascular Variables The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine July 28, 2010
- Meta-analytic evidence that mindfulness training alters resting state default mode network connectivity Scientific Reports July 18, 2022
- Don’t be afraid, try to meditate- potential effects on neural activity and connectivity of psilocybin-assisted mindfulness-based intervention for social anxiety disorder: A systematic review Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews June 6, 2022
and 6 more in the library