Episode 27: Against Mindfulness

Two Psychologists Four Beers

Playing devil's advocate, Yoel and Mickey mount a criticism against the scientific study of mindfulness. What is mindfulness? Can we measure it? Is mindfulness-based therapy effective? Can mindfulness improve the quality of attention beyond the meditation cushion? Are effects of mindfulness mostly placebo effects produced by motivated practitioners and adherents? Should we be impressed by mindfulness meditation’s supposed effects on conceptions of the self? Is mindfulness, in all its complexity, amenable to scientific study?

Bonus: Is the value of diversity and inclusivity a core part of open science?

Links:

• Burdock Bottle Shop
• Collective Arts Brewing (Art + Brewing) — Lunch Money is a straight-up, easy drinking, ale brewed exclusively with German Magnum and Centennial hops to fuel your creativity.
• Will this time be different? — Prepared remarks delivered by Sanjay Srivastava to the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) on July 9, 2019 in Rotterdam.
• Can We End the Meditation Madness? — I AM being stalked by meditation evangelists. ... Before we're all swept into this fad, we ought to ask why meditation is useful.
• The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. - PubMed - NCBI — Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described.
• Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. - PubMed - NCBI — During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and "key to building more resilient soldiers." Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed.
• Argentine tango dance compared to mindfulness meditation and a waiting-list control: a randomised trial for treating depression. - PubMed - NCBI — OBJECTIVES: To determine whether tango dancing is as effective as mindfulness meditation in reducing symptoms of psychological stress, anxiety and depression, and in promoting well-being.
• Spirituality, mindfulness and substance abuse. - PsycNET — ...A positive relationship between mindfulness and smoking/frequent binge drinking behavior was uncovered
• Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Complementary and Alternative Medicine | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network — Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety, depression, and pain and low evidence of improved stress/distress and mental health–related quality of life. We found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight. We found no evidence that meditation programs were better than any active treatment (ie, drugs, exercise, and other behavioral therapies).
• Mindfulness training affects attention--or is it attentional effort? - PubMed - NCBI — Our data demonstrate that previously observed improvements of attention after MBSR may be seriously confounded by test effort and nonmindfulness stress reduction
• Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring. - PubMed - NCBI
• Cognitive effects of MBSR/MBCT: A systematic review of neuropsychological outcomes. - PubMed - NCBI — Overall studies did not support attention or executive function improvements. We found preliminary evidence for improvements in working memory and autobiographical memory as well as cognitive flexibility and meta-awareness.
• Mindfulness training as cognitive training in high-demand cohorts: An initial study in elite military servicemembers. - PubMed - NCBI
• A randomised active-controlled trial to examine the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample | BMC Psychology | Full Text — No evidence was found to suggest that engaging in guided mindfulness practice for 6 weeks using the online intervention method applied in this study improves critical thinking performance.