Be Here Now: Dispositional Mindfulness Enhances Fading Affect Bias

Abstract Objectives The current study examined the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and fading affect bias, where the affect associated with negative events fades more quickly and fully than affect associated with positive events. Although much of the previous work has focused on conditions that hinder fading affect bias (e.g., depression, anxiety), few studies have examined individual difference variables that could enhance the asymmetric fading of positive and negative affect associated with autobiographical events.

Methods: Participants (n = 241) recalled and described positive and negative life events and rated the initial and current emotional intensity of those events. Events were also rated on importance, memorability, and how often they had been thought about. Participants also completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) to assess dispositional mindfulness.

Results: Fading affect bias emerged in the study and the strength of the effect was predicted by dispositional mindfulness. The relationship was driven by the observing and describing subscales of the FFMQ. The data fit a model where increased thinking about positive events, but not negative events, mediated the relationship between the observing subscale and fading affect bias.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that an ability to be centred in the present moment—as measured by dispositional mindfulness—enhances one’s capacity to move on from past events. Specifically, the ability to both observe and describe internal states and the external world enhances the beneficial asymmetric fade of affect associated with negative and positive life events. Preregistration This study is not preregistered.