The impact of mindfulness training on performance in a group decision-making task: Evidence from an experimental study

Abstract

It is widely assumed that mindfulness training will lead to a range of benefits, from improved attentional capacities to better decision-making. Indeed, many large corporations have begun to provide workplace mindfulness training with the aim of improving group-based decision-making. Yet, there has been little empirical work testing the effects of mindfulness training on complex group-based task performance. In a randomised experimental study (N = 332), we examine the effects of two different durations of mindfulness training on strategic decision-making using the classic NASA survival task, assessing individual and then group performance. We expected that a longer training duration (seven daily sessions) would be associated with better group performance relative to a “one-off” training session. We did not find such an association: groups in the longer training condition made slightly, but not significantly, more errors than groups in the one-off condition. We did not find any differences across training conditions when examining individual performance. Our findings should be interpreted in light of numerous studies demonstrating the benefits of even short durations of mindfulness practice on cognitive performance. We conclude that our lengthier mindfulness training duration did not confer measurable benefits over a one-off training session at either the individual or the group level on a strategic decision-making task.