Does Mindfulness Increase Happiness? What is The Evidence?
Does Mindfulness Increase Happiness? What is The Evidence?
What is the strength of evidence for mindfulness increasing happiness? A new review tries to answer this question.
Since the turn of the century, research on happiness and strategies that can increase happiness has increased exponentially, with mindfulness meditation being recommended as an exercise that can help increase a person’s level of happiness and positive mood (Ackerman, 2019; Diener et al., 2017). This shift in research focus in psychology from “negative moods” to “positive moods” might have been triggered by the resurgence of the positive psychology movement (Myers & Diener, 2018).
Further, one cannot deny that the majority of research findings till now indicate that mindfulness meditation can increase a person’s level of happiness and subjective well-being, amongst other benefits (Goldberg, Riordan, Sun, & Davidson, 2022; Gu et al., 2015). Despite these findings, the strength of research on the potential benefits of mindfulness has been questioned due to a number of methodological limitations (Goldberg et al., 2017; Van Dam et al., 2018).
When it comes to findings on mindfulness increasing happiness, this is no exception, and the strength of these findings has been questioned since the field of psychological research underwent what was called the replication crises, when scientists started to realise that the standards they were using for conducting research could have led to false findings (Earp & Trafimow, 2016; Maxwell, Lau, & Howard, 2015; Pashler & Wagenmakers, 2012).
Because of this, nowadays, researchers are expected to “pre-register” their trials, defining the methods and statistical analysis being used before starting the experiment.
In fact, multiple studies have claimed that mindfulness has the potential to increase a person’s level of happiness. Still, a new review indicates that most of these studies are poorly designed, based on a small sample size, and most are not pre-registered, making their conclusions potentially unreliable (Folk & Dunn, 2023).
In simple terms, with pre-registration, researchers are committing to how they are going to do the study and the analyses of data before starting the study and having/collecting the data/results. This dramatically reduces bias and the risk that a study will potentially result in a false positive due to questionable research practices like excluding certain participants, adding covariates, or selectively reporting only results that support the study (Simmons et al., 2011).
While not excluding that, emphasis has been placed on having a sufficiently powered study through an adequate sample size and an appropriate control group comparison relative to the intervention.
Curious how pre-registration and adequately powered trials might influence the results of mindfulness increasing happiness research, Folk and Dunn (2023) carried out a systemic review to gauge the evidence for mindfulness and other recommended strategies for increasing happiness when taking into consideration as inclusion criteria only those studies that were pre-registered and adequately powered.
Adequately powered, being that they had a minimum sample size of “86 participants per condition for a between-subjects design and 45 participants for a within-subjects design” (ibid. p. 3) and control group comparison.
On a literature search, Folk and Dunn (2023) identified in total 195 studies on the potential for mindfulness to increase happiness of which:
186 were identified as not pre-registered and not adequately powered.
1 were identified as pre-registered but not adequately powered.
8 was identified as not pre-registered but adequately powered.
0 studies were identified as pre-registered and adequately powered.
So, in total, from the 195 studies on mindfulness increasing happiness, only 9 met the inclusion criteria for the study as they were either pre-registered or adequately powered.
Considering only those that meet inclusion criteria, Folk and Dunn (2023) observed that in the identified Irish study that was pre-registered but not adequately powered, participants in the mindfulness group did not show increased levels of happiness after attending a six-week online mindfulness program.
While for the eight studies that were identified as not being pre-registered but adequately powered, Folk and Dunn (2023) observed that:
2 studies using MBSR, one using a sample of German police officers and the other using a sample of Norwegian university students, showed improvements in levels of happiness in comparison to controls.
2 studies using MBSR, one on a sample of Americans aged over 65 and another on employees working in a software company, found no improvements in happiness compared to controls.
Here, Folk and Dunn (2023) make an important observation that from the above 4 mentioned studies, only the one using a sample of German police officers used an active control. This is important because a passive control group that might involve a social interactive element, like being in the company of colleagues, might also influence happiness levels (Folk & Dunn, 2023).
While within a 2-year mindfulness intervention on an elderly sample from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, and Myanmar that was pre-registered but adequately powered, it was found that participants reported a substantial increase in happiness. Here again, Folk and Dunn (2023) note that these results might have been mediated by the social component of the program, as participants also showed a considerable reduction in loneliness.
This, again, is important to note.
But why is it important to identify if the social element of mindfulness programs might be causing or affecting participants’ happiness outcome levels beyond mindfulness practice or if the social and mindfulness practice elements are interacting together to effect happiness outcomes?
This is because, in a recent study, Canby et al. (2021) noted how mindfulness practice might not be the sole therapeutic element at work in mindfulness interventions, and the group (social element) and teacher (therapeutic alliance) might also be playing an important therapeutic role.
Although this, Folk and Dunn (2023) also observed how 3 out of the 8 studies identified as not being pre-registered but adequately powered, which controlled for the social interaction component of mindfulness by delivering the mindfulness program online, still showed a potential to increase happiness beyond the social interactive component, as follows:
Two studies using a MBSR program delivered online using pre-recorded sessions on Polish and Chinese sample reported increases in happiness after completing the MBSR program.
An 8-day online mindfulness intervention on a Candian sample showed increased happiness. Although Folk and Dunn (2023) noted how the increases in happiness in this study were only demonstrated by those who did mindfulness practices that included the Buddhist contemplative principles of interdependence and pro-sociability
Considering this, Folk and Dunn (2023) argued that this could potentially indicate that mindfulness could increase happiness beyond the social interaction element.
However, when combining the overall findings from the systematic review, Folk and Dunn (2023) concluded that:
“In contrast to the widespread idea that mindfulness and meditation can promote happiness, the only pre-registered study on this topic failed to uncover any such benefits, although this null result could stem from low power. Of the eight well-powered studies, six found evidence that mindfulness and meditation—in particular, MSBR programmes— could enhance subjective well-being. However, some of these studies confounded opportunities for social interaction with mindfulness meditation practice. Across all of the studies we reviewed, only three studies effectively dealt with this social interaction confound while also ruling out placebo effects by including an active control condition (and only one of these yielded clear and consistent significant effects). As such, this literature provides limited evidence for the happiness-boosting effects of mindfulness and meditation.” (p. 7)
So, what are the implications of such conclusions? Should I stop practising mindfulness? Should mindfulness be recommended or practised to improve overall levels of happiness?
To answer these questions, we need to depart from the conclusion directly emerging from the study and the scope of the study, which was to gauge the strength of evidence for mindfulness at increasing happiness.
Here, the researchers are not concluding that mindfulness does not increase happiness but that the evidence for mindfulness increasing happiness is not that strong and better-designed research is needed to determine.
If mindfulness practice does increase happiness and the strength of this effect.
If such an outcome might be dose dependent and therefore tied to how much the person practices, considering that mindfulness practice requires dedication, time and a daily commitment to practice, and therefore, it might not be suited for everyone, considering the time involved.
If such an outcome might be depended on a person’s particular situation so as to determine whom might benefit from mindfulness practice as a strategy to increase happiness, considering that mindfulness is not the only strategy to do so.
In fact, Folk and Dunn (2023) argued that through their conclusion, they are not implying that mindfulness as a happiness strategy is “akin to snake oil” but more comparable to taking a vitamin that theoretically should be of benefit.
Further, what is important to note is that Folk and Dunn’s (2023) review only included studies related to non-clinical populations, which could be subject to what is called a ceiling effect where happiness levels within such population would be already at a healthy level beyond which it would not increase more.
Ultimately, if you are reading this, what should you take away from the conclusions of this study and should you stop your mindfulness practice?
As the researchers also eluded definitely not, and if you have a regular mindfulness practice, which you find benefits your level of happiness, then continue doing it as long as you find it beneficial as what ultimately the study concludes is that there is not strong evidence yet that it works for everyone as a happiness strategy.
References
Ackerman, C. E. (2019, April 9). 7 great benefits of mindfulness in positive psychology. Retrieved from PositivePsychology.com: https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-positive-psychology-3-great-insights
Canby, N. K., Eichel, K., Lindahl, J., Chau, S., Cordova, J., & Britton, W. B. (2021). The contribution of common and specific therapeutic factors to mindfulness-based intervention outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 603920. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.603394
Diener, E., Heintzelman, J, S., Kushlev, K., Tay, L., Wirtz, D. L., & Oishi, S. (2017). Findings all psychologists should know from the new science on subjective well-being. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 58(2), 87-104. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000063
Earp, B. D., & Trafimow, D. (2016). Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology. Frontiers in Psycholoy, 6(621), 1-11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00621
Folk, D., & Dunn, E. (2023). A systemic review of the strength of evidence for the most common recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-11. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01651-4
Goldberg, S. B., Riordan, K. M., Sun, S., & Davidson, R. J. (2022). The empirical status of mindfulness-based interventions: A systematic review of 44 meta-analyses of randomised control trials. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(1), 108-130. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620968771
Goldberg, S. B., Tucker, R. P., Greene, P. A., Simpson, T. L., Keamey, D. J., & Davidson, R. J. (2017). Is mindfulness research methodology improving over time? A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 12(10), e0187298. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187298
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Maxwell, S. E., Lau, M. Y., & Howard, G. S. (2015). Is psychology suffering from a replication crisis? What does “failure to replicate” really mean? American Psychologist, 70(6), 487-498. doi:10.1037/a0039400
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Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1359-1366. doi:10.1177/0956797611417632
Van Dam, N. T., Van Vugt, M. K., Vago, D. R., Schmalzi, L., Saron, C. D., Olendzki, A., . . . Meyer, D. E. (2018). Mind the hype: A critical evaluation and prescriptive agenda for research on mindfulness and meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Sciences, 13(1), 36-61. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589