The Findings Of A Recent Study, Wrongly Applying Mindfulness Can Make Someone Selfish

Illustration of applying mindfulness (Unsplash / Daniel Mingook Kim)

JAKARTA - Practically speaking, mindfulness is a therapeutic technique that involves a mental state to stay focused and fully aware. Besides that, mindfulness is also a practice for accepting thoughts, feelings, conditions, and enjoying bodily sensations.

A recent study by Michael Poulin, PhD., A professor at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Buffalo, reveals a connection to mindfulness.

"Mindfulness can make you selfish," said Michael Poulin reported by Neuroscience News, Friday, April 30.

This finding is quite contradictory given the early understanding that mindfulness can improve emotional well-being. In Poulin's study, mindfulness for people who tend to see themselves as independent and independent of each other has the potential to reduce prosocial behavior.

Prosocial behavior according to Baron and Byrne in the book Social Psychology, prosocial is behavior to help and empathize with others without expecting anything in return. So, in the context of Poulin's findings, the independent versus interdependent mindset will have different effects on mindfulness practices.

Poulin's perspective is based on Western culture that considers itself independent. This is different from the cultures in East Asian countries which are close to one another. Based on Poulin's speculation, mindfulness has a more visible social effect in this context.

The research team involved 366 participants who had two groups of characters. First independent participants and participants with annoyance dependence. In the first instruction in this study, participants were asked to browse the control group.

Prior to starting the search, participants were notified of opportunities to 'fill envelopes' for charitable organizations.

The second experiment, a total of 325 participants were encouraged to depend on each other by doing exercises that were designed to be effective. The design of the tenders exercise makes participants think of themselves in an independent or interdependent context.

In the second experiment, participants were interviewed with the key question whether they would register to be involved in a charity organization that helps raise donor money.

The results of this experiment were quite surprising. Participants with mindfulness practices that led to independence were 33 percent less likely to volunteer. A 40 percent increase in volunteering for those who are ready to bond with one another.

These results indicate that instruction in mindfulness practice can be a 'tool' to cultivate attention to the social environment and can, on the contrary, increase independence or thus reduce prosocial behavior.

Poulin recommends, “We have to think about how to get the most out of mindfulness. We have to know how to use that tool. "