A Review of Mindfulness Improves Decision Making and Future Prospects
Si Liu, Yaozhong Liu, Yakun Ni
Psychology 2018 DOI: 10.4236/psych.2018.92015 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness training |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 27 |
| Key findings | The authors argue that mindfulness training improves decision-making in both social and non-social contexts, and that this effect is driven predominantly by an emotional system involving the medial prefrontal cortex rather than a rational decision-making system, with posterior insular and thalamic regions more active in non-social conditions. Attention, compassion, and cognitive control are also proposed as contributing factors. |
Abstract
With the popularity of mindfulness training among different groups of people, more and more attention has been paid to the positive role of mindfulness. In particular, the improvement of mindfulness on decision-making has been respected by the elite management and practitioners in different industries. There are also different forms of experimental paradigms for different types of decision-making behaviors in research methods. Both behavioral evidence and imaging evidence show that mindfulness training can improve decision-making, both under the social and non-social conditions. Mindfulness training was predominantly driven by an “emotional” system, manifested by an active medial prefrontal cortex, whereas the latter was not dominated by a “rational” system of decision-making processes; on the contrary, posterior insular and thalamic regions with emotional function were more active. Therefore, the emotional system throughout the mindset training affects the whole process of decision-making. In addition, mindfulness affects other possible factors such as attention, compassion, and cognitive control in the decision-making process. At last, based on the existing research deficiencies, this paper analyzed future prospects from the aspects of research methods, research contents and theoretical construction, in order to provide references for future research in this field.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical populations | 2003 | Review | |
| Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects | 2007 | Review | |
| Mindfulness Interventions | 2016 | Review | |
| Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation | 2017 | Review | |
| Mindfulness and acceptance: expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition | 2005 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Mindfulness and decision-making for teachers—the mediating role of self-esteem and the moderating role of experience Frontiers in Education January 22, 2025
- Buffering Stress or Building Resources? A Test of Mindfulness Mechanisms in the Workplace. Psychological Reports July 1, 2025
- Positive-Negative Affectivity and Decision Making Among Mindfulness Meditators and Non-Meditators Mind and Society July 20, 2023
- Does focused attention meditation improve probability weighting bias? The role of emotional trade-off difficulty and compensatory decision making. BMC Psychology February 3, 2026
- The effect of mindfulness training on resilience and decision-making strategy in women with unwanted pregnancy (a quasi-experimental study). BMC Psychology December 23, 2025
and 2 more in the library
Cites 25
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Psychosomatic Medicine July 1, 2003
- Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Neuroreport November 7, 2005
- Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences October 11, 2007
- Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience August 13, 2007
and 20 more in the library