Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282584 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16457
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Improving cognitive function and reducing stress may yield important benefits to individuals' health and to society. We conduct an experiment involving a three-month within-firm training program based on the principles of mindfulness and positive psychology at three large companies. We find an improvement in the difference-in-differences across the training and control groups in all five non-incentivized measures and in seven of the eight incentivized tasks but only the non-incentivized measures and one of the incentivized measures reached a standard level of significance (above 5%), showing strong evidence of its impact on both reducing perceived stress and increasing self-reported cognitive flexibility and mindfulness. At the aggregate level, we identify an average treatment effect on the treated for the non-incentivized measures and some effect for the incentivized measures. Remarkably, the treatment effects persisted three months after the training sessions ended. Overall, mindfulness training seems to provide benefits for psychological and cognitive health in adults.
Subjects: 
mindfulness
attention
cognition
stress
lab-in-the-field experiment
JEL: 
C91
I12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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