Mind training, stress and behaviour-A randomised experiment.

Yonas Alem,Anikó Bíró,Hannah Behrendt,Michèle Belot

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258172

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the effects of a psychological training, called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on stress and risk and time preferences. MBSR is a well-known psychological technique, which is believed to improve self-control and reduce stress. We conduct the experiment with 139 participants, half of whom receive the MBSR training, while the other half are asked to watch a documentary series, both over 4 consecutive weeks. Using a range of self-reported and physiological measures (such as cortisol measures), we find evidence that mindfulness training reduces perceived stress, but we only find weak evidence of effects on risk and inter-temporal attitudes.

Highlights

Economists have devoted a fair amount of attention to understanding choices that are intertemporal and uncertain in nature, such as choices on how much to save, whether to apply to college, whether to smoke or not, go on a diet, etc
We first present baseline characteristics of our sample, as well as information on background socio-economic characteristics we collected in the initial session
Analysing the patterns of attrition and compliance, we find no evidence that behavioural characteristics would predict engagement with the mindfulness program

Summary

Introduction

Economists have devoted a fair amount of attention to understanding choices that are intertemporal and uncertain in nature, such as choices on how much to save, whether to apply to college, whether to smoke or not, go on a diet, etc. Students were allocated randomly either to a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme or to a control intervention consisting of a series of documentaries called “BBC Ancient Worlds”. We chose this intervention for the control group because it requires a similar degree of time commitment, but involves very different activities. We evaluate effects on measures of chronic stress, because this outcome has been a primary target of the MBSR programme, and could be one of the channels through which risk and time preferences are altered.

Materials and methods

Experimental procedure

Results

Discussion