Even 15 minutes of mindful meditation a day promotes better decision-making, according to an international study led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ). Meditators in the research study were less prone to certain cognitive biases, such as ignoring potentially negative information, ETHZ revealed on Tuesday.
The researchers randomly divided 261 participants into two groups. For a fortnight, one group practised mindfulness meditation for 15 minutes a day, while the other simply listened to relaxing music. Before and after the experiment, the participants completed standardised questionnaires designed to determine how they react to negative information or certain emotions. The questions related, for example, to their state of health, their finances or their relationships.
“The study participants who meditated every day for two weeks were better equipped to simply observe their negative emotions and accept them calmly,” said Professor Elliott Ash who led the study.
Mindfulness meditation was found to make people more resilient to uncomfortable emotions, which in turn allows them to process negative information more objectively. As a result, meditators were better informed, especially about facts to which they might react negatively.
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