EFFECT OF SHORT-TERM MINDFULNESS INDUCTION ON MYSIDE BIAS AND MISERLY PROCESSING: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Abstract

The ability to reflect on one's own information processing appears to be crucial for rationality (Stanovich, 2011). This notion is based on a hypothesis, that only an individual with a certain degree of knowledge of his own cognition might be capable of adequately regulating his reasoning and inhibit various cognitive biases. I propose an approach to gaining knowledge about one's own cognitive processes that is based on mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness can be defined as paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Developed metacognitive skills are a necessity for a well-performing 'reflective mind' and thus for rational thought. Not only is practice of mindfulness meditation dependent on the development of relevant metacognitive skills and knowledge (Jankowski & Holas, 2014), it also provides means for a better selfknowledge as the mindful awareness draws attention to details of individual's mental life. During a mindfulness meditation, the practitioner also trains his executive functions as he gradually learns how to inhibit mind-wandering and habitual reactions and trains cognitive shifting while trying to focus on changing mental contents (Moore & Malinowski, 2009).These aspects of mindfulness seem to be contrary to preference for lesser cognitive load and thus heuristic processing. While being mindful, one should diligently take notice of passing mental phenomena and regard even seemingly trite experiences with curiosity. This appears to go against the tendency for fast and superficial heuristic processing (miserly processing). Secondly, mindful non-judgmental and decentered perspective (Jankowski & Holas, 2014) might give an individual certain distance from his own beliefs or convictions, which might prove helpful for reducing confirmation/ myside bias. Myside bias in context of this study means the tendency to evaluate information based on beliefs or opinions held by an individual or based on belonging to specific group/status.Therefore, the main rationale for this study was the fact, that possible effects of mindfulness on cognitive biases and human rationality have not been studied so far, with only few exceptions (Emanuel, Updegraff, Kalmbach, & Ciesla, 2010; Hafenbrack, Kinias, & Barsade, 2013) of which one examined merely a relationship with trait mindfulness and found that only one particular facet of mindfulness was related to a degree of biased affective forecasting (Emanuel et al., 2010). Another study (Noone, Bunting, & Hogan, 2016) measuring trait mindfulness found that higher levels of mindfulness are related to critical thinking and executive functions. Yet other studies (Heeren, Van Broeck, & Philippot, 2009; Mrazek, Franklin, Phillips, Baird, & Schooler, 2013; Teper & Inzlicht, 2013) found that mindfulness affects executive functions and these are in turn possibly related to inhibition of cognitive biases, because training of inhibition in mindfulness meditations might help in inhibiting fast heuristic reactions like those measured by the Cognitive Reflection Test (Frederick, 2005).I attempted to examine possible effects of short-term mindfulness induction on the amount of myside bias and tendency for miserly processing. Although the majority of studies have focused on the effects of longterm training of mindfulness, some studies (Arch & Craske, 2006; Hafenbrack et al., 2013; Kiken & Shook, 2011) have found that even short-term mindfulness induction (all studies used 15 minute recorded inductions) might have an effect on various domains. The most relevant finding is related to a reduction in sunk-cost bias (Hafenbrack et al., 2013). The goal of the current study was to find out if short-term mindfulness is suitable as a method to reduce other cognitive biases and thus improve decision-making. Unlike long-term mindfulness training programs (usually lasting for an eight week period), a short-term mindfulness induction, if demonstrated to be effective, might be more practical and thus could be more easily deployed in various commonplace contexts (e. …