State Mindfulness and Misinformation Susceptibility

Abstract

Two experiments examined whether brief mindful meditation exercises and belief in task utility impacted memory in the misinformation paradigm. Participants watched a fictionalized crime video, received post-event misinformation about the video, and completed a cued recall memory test. They were randomly assigned to complete either a brief mindfulness exercise or unrelated task prior to encoding the video (E1) or prior to the final cued recall test (E2). Further, half of the participants in each group were informed that their assigned task was beneficial to memory performance. In Experiment 1, information about task benefits reduced misinformation reports on the final recall test, regardless of the task. The brief mindfulness exercise increased self-reported mindfulness scores in both experiments. While no group differences in memory were found, correlational analyses across the two experiments suggest that individuals who achieve more intense states of mindfulness may have lower susceptibility to misinformation and better event memory when meditation occurs prior to encoding. The results suggest that brief mindfulness exercises can reliably increase state experiences of mindfulness and have potential for use as experimental manipulations. However, the intensity of a self-guided mindfulness experience can vary across individuals, so it is important to consider individual differences when considering the application of the exercises.