Study shows: People make better decisions through meditation

class=”sc-29f61514-0 kHgAwW”>

As ETH Zurich explained on Tuesday, subjects who practiced mindfulness meditation daily for two weeks as part of the study were less inclined to avoid negative information.

Hiding potentially negative information is called cognitive bias in psychology. People tend to ignore information that raises fear and anxiety. This trend declined among study participants. Researchers suspect that meditation strengthens the ability to calmly deal with negative emotions.

For the study, the researchers randomly divided 261 subjects into two groups. One group meditated for 15 minutes a day for two weeks, while the second group listened to relaxing music at the same time.

Before and after the experiment, study participants also had to answer standardized questions that provided information about how well they coped with negative information and how strongly they responded to emotions. For example, questions about whether they want negative information about their health, financial investments, or relationships.

Researchers understand mindfulness meditation as a practice in which people sit quietly with their eyes closed and observe their breathing, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions without reacting to them. (SDA)

Source : Blick