| By: |
Charness, Gary (University of California, Santa Barbara);
Le Bihan, Yves (Institut Français du Leadership Positif);
Villeval, Marie Claire (CNRS, GATE) |
| 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. |
| Keywords: |
mindfulness, attention, cognition, stress, lab-in-the-field experiment |
| JEL: |
C91 I12 |
| Date: |
2023–09 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16457&r=neu |