A series of four studies (one correlational and three experimental) shows that mindfulness meditation reduces the sunk-cost bias—the tendency to let unrecoverable prior costs influence current decisions. Increased mindfulness was linked to greater resistance to this bias. Laboratory experiments found that a mindfulness-meditation induction increased resistance. The bias was attenuated by shifting temporal focus away from the future and past and by reducing negative affect, both achieved through mindfulness meditation.
Across five experiments with over 1,400 participants, focused-breathing meditation that cultivates state mindfulness reduces the desire to make amends after a transgression. Induced mindfulness lowered feelings of guilt and weakened the link between wrongdoing and reparative actions. In contrast, loving-kindness meditation increased prosocial reparation by boosting other-focus and feelings of love. The findings suggest that different meditation practices have distinct effects on prosocial behavior.