Knock yourself out: Brief mindfulness-based meditation eliminates self-prioritization

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Meditation Research

Background:

• Self-prioritization is considered a fundamental aspect of human cognition.
• Mindfulness-based meditation is known to reduce egocentric biases.
• The impact of mindfulness on self-bias requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the extent to which mindfulness-based meditation attenuates self-bias.
• To explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect of mindfulness on self-prioritization.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments (N=160 each) were conducted using an object-classification task.
• Participants meditated for 5 minutes (mindfulness or control) before reporting item ownership (self vs. friend).
• Drift diffusion modeling was employed to analyze decision-making processes.

Main Results:

• Mindfulness meditation abolished the self-ownership effect in decision-making.
• A prestimulus bias towards self-relevant responses was eliminated by mindfulness meditation.
• Mindfulness meditation increased response caution and evidence accumulation for friend-related objects.

Conclusions:

• Brief mindfulness-based meditation effectively tempers self-prioritization.
• Mindfulness influences both stimulus and response-related operations in decision-making.
• These findings highlight the potential of mindfulness to modulate egocentric biases.