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Research Article

Mindfulness and equanimity moderate approach/avoidance motor responses

ORCID Icon, , &
Pages 1085-1098 | Received 07 Jul 2020, Accepted 30 Apr 2021, Published online: 19 May 2021
 

ABSTRACT

A person’s tendency to approach pleasant stimuli and to avoid unpleasant stimuli reflects a basic psychological phenomenon. The present research aimed to investigate the extent to which mindfulness practices and trait equanimity can attenuate this motivational process. In two studies, participants were asked to perform an Approach/Avoidance Task (AAT). In Study 1 (N = 84), prior to completing the AAT, participants were randomly assigned to one of two guided mindfulness-based meditation conditions (breathing or body-scan) or to an active control condition. In Study 2 (N = 71), which controlled for mindfulness practice, motor responses to the AAT were compared by level of equanimity of the participants (low vs. high). The results revealed that breathing meditation practice and trait equanimity significantly moderated participants’ motor responses to the AAT, and that the body-scan meditation did not moderate these responses. Bayesian analyses showed that participants in the breathing meditation group (Study 1) and those with higher equanimity (Study 2) showed a reduction of bias in their motor responses to the AAT. These results suggest that meditation practice and trait equanimity may promote a decrease in automatic motivational approach and avoidance tendencies evoked by positive and negative stimuli.

Acknowledgement

CJ: designed, executed, and analysed the studies and wrote a first draft. RS: collaborated in the study design and the writing of the article. BK: collaborated in the writing of the article. MD: collaborated in the study design, the data analyses, and the writing of the article. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data of this study are openly available in figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12613409.v1

Notes

1 For each comparison, we reported the Bayesian Factor (i.e., the extent to which the data support H1). Substantial support for H1 is provided by a BF > 3 (BF > 10 is judged to be strong; > 30 very strong, and >100 decisive). Support for H0 is provided by a BF < 1.

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