Mindfulness training reduces the preference for sustainable outcomes

Abstract Theoretical accounts posit that mindfulness promotes pro-environmental behavior. While this claim is supported by correlational findings, past intervention studies provided no evidence that enhancing mindfulness increases self-report measures of pro-environmental attitudes or behavior. Here, we tested whether a 31-day mindfulness intervention strengthens preferences for pro-environmental outcomes with decision tasks involving real conflict between participants’ selfish interests and beneficial consequences for the environment. To unravel the psychological mechanisms underlying the impact of mindfulness on sustainability, we assessed the impact of mindfulness training on prosociality and future orientation. Contrary to our hypotheses, the mindfulness intervention reduced instead of increased preferences for pro-environmental and prosocial outcomes, whereas no effects were observed on future orientation. Baseline preferences for pro-environmental and prosocial outcomes (and the intervention effects on them) were correlated, providing empirical evidence for a link between sustainability and prosociality. Together, the current data suggest that the relationship between mindfulness and sustainability as well as prosociality may be more complicated than assumed in the literature.