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.
People who report having had a near-death experience during a life-threatening event show more temporal lobe epileptiform brain activity and more temporal lobe epilepsy symptoms than control subjects. However, contrary to earlier findings linking mystical experiences to the right temporal lobe, the epileptiform activity was almost entirely in the left hemisphere. Near-death experiencers do not show dysfunctional stress reactions such as dissociation, posttraumatic stress disorder, or substance abuse; instead they have positive coping styles. They also have altered sleep patterns: shorter sleep duration and delayed REM sleep. The findings suggest that altered temporal lobe functioning may play a role in near-death experiences and that these individuals are physiologically distinct from the general population.