We would like to share new evidence that mindfulness can improve decision-making. This article is from Knowledge @ Wharton.
Making a Big (or Small) Decision? How Meditation Can Help
Forget the past. Ignore the likely future. Just spend a few minutes concentrating on your breathing, and focus on the task at hand.
The advice is almost too simple to believe. But according to new research co-authored by Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade, if followed, it could save time and money for everyone — from a consumer searching for a new car all the way to the head of a billion-dollar corporation.
Barsade, Andrew C. Hafenbrack and Zoe Kinias — both with the department of organizational behavior at INSEAD — are the authors of “Debiasing the Mind through Meditation: Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias.” The paper, published in Psychological Science, explores how short meditation sessions can reduce the likelihood that decisions will be made based on information from the past that should have no bearing on the choice at hand.
