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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

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Published on: March 1, 2019

Mindfully missing myself: Induced mindfulness causes alienation among poor self-regulators.

Niyati Thakur¹, Nicola Baumann¹

¹Department of Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology and Diagnostics, University of Trier, Trier, Germany.

|May 21, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Mindfulness may alienate individuals with low self-regulation (state-oriented) by reducing self-connection. This effect was not observed in those with high self-regulation (action-oriented), suggesting mindfulness benefits vary by individual differences.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Cognitive Science
Behavioral Science

Background:

Mindfulness is widely practiced for self-connection.
Emerging evidence suggests mindfulness may not universally benefit all individuals.
Individual differences in affect regulation may moderate mindfulness's effects on the self.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether mindfulness promotes self-alienation in individuals with low affect self-regulation (state-oriented).
To examine if this effect differs between state-oriented and action-oriented individuals.
To test the hypothesis that mindfulness hinders access to personal preferences and intrinsic goals in vulnerable individuals.

Main Methods:

Two studies were conducted with participants largely new to mindfulness.
Participants were assigned to either a five-minute mindfulness exercise or a five-minute text-reading control group.
Self-alienation was measured by consistency in preference judgments and goal adoption (intrinsic vs. extrinsic).

Main Results:

Mindfulness significantly decreased preference judgment consistency in state-oriented participants compared to the control group (Study 1).
State-oriented individuals in the mindfulness group showed a lower tendency to adopt intrinsic goals over extrinsic ones (Study 2).
These alienating effects of mindfulness were not found in action-oriented participants.

Conclusions:

Mindfulness practice may lead to self-alienation in psychologically vulnerable individuals, particularly those with state-oriented affect regulation.
The findings suggest mindfulness can impair access to personal preferences and intrinsic motivations for certain individuals.
Results align with Personality-Systems-Interactions (PSI) theory, highlighting the importance of individual differences in psychological interventions.