Brief mindfulness meditation increases risk-taking behavior.

A brief session of mindfulness-based meditation increases risk-taking behavior, as shown across two experiments using different tasks (Balloon Analogue Risk Task and Bomb Risk Elicitation Task), participants from the UK and Singapore, and both online and in-person settings. Compared to active and passive control conditions, mindfulness meditation led to greater risk taking. Computational modeling traced this effect to a reduction in loss aversion during decision-making.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Brief mindfulness-based meditation exerts a potent influence on social cognition. What is not yet understood, however, is whether and how it impacts an important facet of daily life-risk taking. Specifically, it is unclear the extent to which a single episode of mindfulness meditation shapes risk-taking behavior. Addressing this issue, here we examined the effects of mindfulness meditation on risk taking using two established experimental paradigms (i.e., Expt. 1: Balloon Analogue Risk Task; Expt. 2: Bomb Risk Elicitation Task), participants from different cultural milieus (i.e., Expt. 1: UK; Expt. 2: Singapore), and varied testing environments (i.e., Expt. 1: on-line; Expt. 2: in-person). A consistent pattern of results emerged across the experiments. Compared to both active and passive control conditions, brief mindfulness-based meditation increased risk-taking behavior. Of theoretical significance, additional computational analyses traced the origin of this effect to a reduction in loss aversion during decisional processing. The implications of these findings are considered.