Open your eyes for others' worldviews: How mindfulness meditation at home shapes next-day perspective taking and employees' functioning.
Charlotte Hohnemann, Vera M Schweitzer, Fabienne Aust, Corinna Peifer, Stefan Diestel
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology April 1, 2026 DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000426 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-person field experiment Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 64 |
| Population | Participants from different sectors in Germany |
| Duration | 10 days (5 intervention days, 5 control days; next-day outcomes measured) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | A brief evening mindfulness meditation improved next-day perspective taking, which in turn predicted higher extra-role performance, in-role performance, and work engagement. |
Abstract
Can a brief meditation in the evening reshape our understanding of others at work during the next day, thereby enhancing the actor's performance and motivation? To address this question, we examine spillover effects of a brief meditation in the evening on next-day extra-role performance, in-role performance, and work engagement, considering perspective taking as explaining mechanism. Sixty-four participants from different sectors in Germany took part in our within-person field experiment over 10 days, receiving a 7-min mindfulness intervention on 5 days and an active control intervention on the other days. Our results supported a positive effect of the mindfulness intervention on next-day perspective taking, while the control intervention showed no effect. In turn, perspective taking predicted day-specific extra-role performance, in-role performance, and work engagement. The mindfulness intervention exerted significant indirect effects on all outcomes via perspective taking. These results help to clarify how an evening meditation enhances our understanding of others at work, improving performance and motivation. They further support employees in making an informed decision about whether they want to engage in evening meditation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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 |