Mindfulness can make people selfish

The surprising downsides of mindfulness

Mindfulness and meditation are associated with emotional well-being, help people cope with stress, and their popularity continues to rise. Mindfulness is widely practised to reduce anxiety, depression and drug addiction.

But a new paper by University at Buffalo researchers demonstrates the surprising downsides of mindfulness, while offering easy ways to minimise those consequences.

"Mindfulness can make you selfish," says Michael Poulin, associate professor of psychology and the paper's lead author. "Mindfulness increased prosocial actions for people who tend to view themselves as interdependent. However, for people who tend to view themselves as more independent, mindfulness actually decreased prosocial behaviour. Research suggests that mindfulness works, but this study shows that it's a tool, not a prescription, which requires more than a plug-and-play approach if practitioners are to avoid its potential pitfalls."