Implicitly Activating Mindfulness: Does Trait Self-Control Moderate Its Effect on Aggressive Behaviour?

Abstract

Abstract Objectives. Previous research shows that a novel experimental paradigm consisting of implicitly activating (“priming”) concepts associated with mindfulness through a scrambled sentence task yields positive social effects on cognition and affect. Yet, its effects on social behaviour warrant further investigation. As several studies link mindfulness to lower aggression, the latter represents a promising candidate to investigate within the current paradigm. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that personality traits—such as trait mindfulness—moderate the effect of the mindfulness prime, highlighting the importance of identifying potential moderators. Methods. In a first hypothesis-generating (exploratory, non-preregistered) study, we investigated which of several personality variables most meaningfully related to the priming mindfulness procedure. Results. Self-control emerged as the only meaningful moderator. Accordingly, we specifically tested the interaction between self-control and the mindfulness priming procedure in two additional hypothesis-testing (confirmatory, preregistered) studies using larger samples. The results from the first study did not replicate: the critical interaction of interest was not significant in both studies. Conclusions. We discuss the implications of these conflicting results and highlight the importance of preregistered replication studies in mindfulness research. Preregistration. The last two studies were preregistered on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/582wx/?view_only=147b4bcee2de46f8aea34258d5e08122 and https://osf.io/w46r9/?view_only=b71b93ac96814967af034fb1fb6fda7f).