Mitigating the Impact of Interruptions on Financial Decisions: The Roles of Alternative Mindfulness Practices and Motivation Quality

Objectives: Financial well-being requires appropriate risk choices. We investigated the effects of alternative mindfulness practices and task motivation quality on financial risk-taking.

Method: We explored these issues in four studies: (1) examining the effects of interruptions on risk-taking (study 1, n = 125); (2) introducing “financial” mindfulness (study 2, n = 140); (3) comparing alternative mindfulness conditions (study 3, n = 279); and (4) contrasting extrinsic and intrinsic task motivations (study 4, n = 146). Study 1 confirmed that interruptions influence risk-taking. Studies 2–4 manipulated mindfulness practices across interruption conditions: financial mindfulness vs. none (study 2); financial mindfulness, breath awareness, and special place (study 3); and breath awareness vs. special place (study 4), with an “intrinsic” task motivation condition.

Results: While interruptions increased financial risk-taking (study 1), “financial mindfulness” reduced risk-taking relative to a “no mindfulness” condition (study 2). Risk-taking was higher in financial mindfulness and “special-place” conditions than in a “breath awareness” condition (study 3). However, with an intrinsically motivated task (study 4), a non-task-focused mindfulness intervention showed similar financial risk-taking across interrupted and uninterrupted conditions.

Conclusions: When participants were interrupted, mindfulness practices had varying effects on financial risk-taking. Mindfulness consistently lowered anxiety, but its effects on financial risk preferences depended on the specific mindfulness practice and the quality of participants’ task motivation. Hence, mindfulness practices likely reduce emotion-induced financial risk-taking, but not all risk-taking. Research exploring the rich diversity of mindfulness practices, including financial planning, holds great promise. Preregistration: The studies were not preregistered in a public registry.