Seeing attractive faces challenges inhibitory control, especially when mindful

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social psychology

Background:

• Mindfulness is often linked to improved inhibitory control, the ability to stop unwanted behaviors.
• However, the effectiveness of mindfulness may vary depending on the specific context.
• The influence of social reward cues on this relationship remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and inhibitory control.
• To examine the moderating role of a social reward context (attractive faces) on this relationship.
• To explore whether mindfulness affects the perception of attractiveness.

Main Methods:

• Fifty participants (ages 18-43) completed mindfulness questionnaires and a Go/No-go task.
• The task included neutral and attractive face conditions.
• Inhibitory performance and perceived attractiveness were measured.

Main Results:

• Inhibitory control was impaired when participants viewed attractive faces compared to neutral stimuli.
• Dispositional mindfulness negatively correlated with inhibitory performance specifically in the attractive faces condition.
• Higher mindfulness was associated with lower perceived attractiveness, but this did not explain the impaired inhibitory control.

Conclusions:

• Mindfulness can challenge inhibitory control in the presence of attractive faces.
• Mindfulness interventions targeting inhibitory control may be less effective in social reward contexts.
• Further research is needed to determine if these findings generalize to other reward contexts.