"Letting Go" (Implicitly): Priming Mindfulness Mitigates the Effects of a Moderate Social Stressor.
Catherine M Bergeron, Isabelle Almgren-Doré, Stéphane Dandeneau
Frontiers in Psychology June 13, 2016 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00872 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 91 |
| Population | Adults who completed a public speaking stress task |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Cortisol Stress reactivity Implicit processes Stress perceptions |
| Key findings | Implicitly priming mindfulness after a social stressor was associated with better situational self-esteem and lower negative affect, perceived stress, and self-reported arousal among participants low in trait mindfulness, and with a greater early cortisol decline regardless of trait mindfulness. The authors suggest implicit mindfulness activation can mitigate psychological and physiological stress responses. |
Abstract
This experimental study investigated whether implicitly priming mindfulness would facilitate psychological and cortisol recovery after undergoing a standardized psychological stressor. After completing baseline measures of well-being, all participants (N = 91) completed a public speaking stress task, were implicitly primed with "mindfulness" or "neutral" concepts using a scrambled sentence task, and finally, reported their situational well-being and provided cortisol samples. Simple moderation regression analyses revealed that the implicit mindfulness condition had significant beneficial effects for participants with low trait mindfulness. These participants reported higher situational self-esteem as well as less negative affect, perceived stress, and self-reported physiological arousal than their counterparts in the control condition. Cortisol analyses revealed that participants in the implicit mindfulness condition, regardless of level of trait mindfulness, showed a greater decline in cortisol during the early recovery stage compared to those in the control condition. Overall, results suggest that implicitly activating mindfulness can mitigate the psychological and physiological effects of a social stressor.
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
Cited by 5
- Brief mindfulness training for negative affectivity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology June 25, 2018
- Implicitly Activating Mindfulness: Does Trait Self-Control Moderate Its Effect on Aggressive Behaviour? Research Square October 4, 2023
- Mental and Behavioural Responses to Bahá'í Fasting: Looking behind the Scenes of a Religiously Motivated Intermittent Fast Using a Mixed Methods Approach. Nutrients February 28, 2022
- Relationship of Mindfulness to Distress and Cortisol Response in Adolescent Girls At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes. Journal of Child and Family Studies March 19, 2018
- The Protective Role of Mindfulness in the Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination and Depression Mindfulness November 4, 2017
Cites 6
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
- Assessment of Mindfulness by Self-Report Assessment September 1, 2004
- How Does Mindfulness Training Affect Health? A Mindfulness Stress Buffering Account Current Directions in Psychological Science December 1, 2014
- Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Effects on Anxiety and Stress Reactivity The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry March 13, 2013
and 1 more in the library