Mindfulness Can Make Independent People Selfish, Study Suggests

Mindfulness and meditation are said to reduce anxiety and stress while also increasing emotional well-being. Today in the US, mindfulness is a big business with different apps that teach people how to practice it. These apps generate billions of dollars every year and their popularity continues to rise.

In 2017, the Independent said that mindfulness is one of the most searched words in search engines. But even if a heightened sense of self-awareness benefits a person, it could also make them selfish.

According to a press release from the University of Buffalo, the study suggests that mindfulness will increase prosocial behaviors in people who view themselves as interdependent. At the same time, it will make people who see themselves as independent selfish.

The study will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.

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Mindfulness Can Make People Selfish Contrary to Popular Belief

Independent vs. Interdependent

The study presented a surprising downside of mindfulness as well as how to minimize those consequences, which both have implications for mindfulness training, Neuroscience News reported.

"Mindfulness can make you selfish," says UB College of Arts and Sciences psychology associate professor and lead author of the study Michael Poulin, Ph.D. "It's a qualified fact, but it's also accurate.

The result may be contradictory to the benefits of mindfulness, but researchers said that the study does not aim to dismantle the effectiveness of mindfulness. The technique is effective but Poulin said that mindfulness is only a tool and not a prescription, which needs more than a plug-and-play approach to avoid potential pitfalls.

Moreover, Poulin pointed out the independent versus the interdependent mindset of people plays a critical role in the success of mindfulness training.

For instance, cultural differences between the Western people and East Asian people are at the top of these perspectives. The former think of themselves as independent who often terms like: "I do this." While the latter think of themselves as interdependent, having the mindset of: "We do this."

Since mindfulness practices originated in East Asian countries, Poulin believes that it cultivates prosocial behaviors among those people. But when applied to Western countries, it removes the context of prosocial actions.

Poulin added that despite cultural differences, individual differences could also be accounted for as the result of either becoming a person who practices prosocial behaviors or a selfish person.

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Mindfulness Negative Side Effects

According to Dr. Alison Gray of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, mindfulness makes it easier for people to overanalyze their life. She noted that it would be more helpful for people to seek help from a community or a group to battle anxiety and stress, MailOnline reported in 2017.

It is said that those who practice mindfulness could spot signs of anxiety and stress to deal with their emotions properly. But Gray claims that mindfulness training could make people self-aware of their negative emotions that could have a destabilizing effect on their well-being.

"When you look inside yourself what you find can be quite negative and quite destabilizing, and so you need a community around you to help process this stuff and keep you healthy," she said.