The paradox of mindful work: meditation reduces unpleasant task motivation but not performance

A state of mindfulness is characterized by nonjudgmental and increased awareness of the present moment, and can be cultivated in a single 8-15 minute period of meditation. By inducing changes in temporal focus and state effect, state mindfulness has been found to lead to a variety of almost uniformly positive consequences in prior research. In contrast and based on similar processes, the current research investigated whether state mindfulness reduces motivation to engage in unpleasant tasks. Six experiments empirically examined the relationship between state mindfulness, task motivation, and task performance. Studies 1a, 1b, 3, and 4a found that state mindfulness reduced a priori motivation to engage in unpleasant or difficult tasks. Study 2 found that state mindfulness (relative to a mind-wandering control condition) led to a greater reduction in motivation towards a task when it was framed as unpleasant relative to when it was framed as pleasant. Studies 3, 4a, and 4b found that state mindfulness did not impair performance on the same unpleasant tasks. Study 4a found that the demotivating effect of state mindfulness towards unpleasant tasks was mediated by a decrease in state arousal. These findings suggest that task motivation and performance, which are normally tightly-linked, can be decoupled by a state of mindfulness.