A recent study conducted in the Netherlands found that individuals who were more mindful, meaning they were better at being aware of their thoughts and feelings without judging them, had an easier time dealing with strangers during stressful tasks. The people they interacted with also tended to like the interactions more compared to those who were less mindful. The study was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Mindfulness as a trait refers to an individual’s natural inclination or tendency to be aware of their present thoughts, emotions, sensations, and surroundings in a non-judgmental and accepting manner. People with higher levels of mindfulness trait are more likely to stay focused on the current moment, observing their experiences without becoming overly absorbed or reactive. This trait is characterized by an enhanced ability to detach from automatic thought patterns and to approach situations with openness and curiosity. It’s often associated with greater emotional regulation, reduced stress, and improved overall well-being.
Mindfulness can also be temporarily induced as a state. Individuals can be trained to be trained in mindfulness through mediation. Numerous studies have indicated that intrapersonal benefits mindfulness produces spill over into the interpersonal domain. For example, mindful individuals tend to be more cooperative towards others and show less bias.
Study author Kim Lien van der Schans and his colleagues wanted to know how mindfulness as a trait is associated with real interactions with others. They conducted a study in which they organized stressful interpersonal interactions between pairs of strangers in their lab. Their expectation was that individuals with high levels of mindfulness would be less distressed by such interactions and that they will like them more.
The study involved 134 female participants from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They were paired up into 67 pairs. Participants were either given course credit or a small payment for taking part. The researchers chose only females to minimize the influence of gender.
The participants first completed a questionnaire about their mindfulness traits. Then, they were paired up with someone they didn’t know and had to complete a stressful task together. The task began with them standing very close to each other and introducing themselves. Then, they moved to opposite sides of the room and reported their stress levels. After that, they worked on a task together, where one person had to keep a pointer inside a circle held by the other person without touching the edges of the circle.
After the task, participants shared how much they liked the interaction, how attentive their partner was, how comfortable they felt during the introduction, and how well their partner handled mistakes.
The results showed that individuals with higher mindfulness traits reported feeling less stressed after the interaction. They also said they liked the interaction more, found their partner more attentive, felt more comfortable during the introduction, and thought their partner handled mistakes better.
Interestingly, the stress levels that participants felt weren’t linked to how mindful their partners were. People with high mindfulness were not seen by their partners as more or less attentive, or better or worse at handling the task and mistakes. However, partners of mindful individuals did mention that they liked the interaction a bit more on average compared to partners of less mindful individuals.
“In our study we found that if you are high in trait mindfulness, you may generally have more positive interaction experiences, but that is not necessarily true for your interaction partners. Our study highlights the importance of a dyadic approach in studying mindfulness in social behavior. Whilst trait mindfulness might robustly affect self-reported social behavior, it might not strongly manifest itself in real interpersonal situations,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between mindfulness and interpersonal interactions. However, it should be noted that all study participants were young females. Additionally, all assessments were based on self-reports. Results on males and other age groups might not be the same.
The study, “Through mindful colored glasses? The role of trait mindfulness in evaluating interactions with strangers”, was authored by Kim Lien van der Schans, Janne AM van Kraaij, and Johan C Karremans.