July 16, 2011

Mindfulness refers to an awareness of present-moment experiences with a compassionate and non-judgmental attitude, and mindfulness meditation has grown in popularity over recent years as a treatment for stress and as a means of improving cognitive thinking. According to a recent report, mindfulness may also improve ethical decision-making.

Published in the February 18, 2011 issue of Journal of Business Ethics by doctoral student Nicole Ruedy and professor, Maurice Schweitzer of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the report suggests that the increased self-awareness developed through mindfulness reduces tolerance for unethical behavior.

The authors wrote, “By lowering the threshold for which behaviors are registered as unethical, mindfulness might help individuals to detect and avoid a wider range of violations.”

In one of the two studies comprising the report, participants with an average age of 21.1 years old completed a tailored survey to assess each individual’s level of mindfulness. Then, each was given four minutes to answer fifteen questions, with every correct answer worth one dollar.

By using a type of carbonless copy paper that participants removed from the back of the answer sheet, researchers secretly collected copies of the original responses without the participants’ knowledge. Before submitting their final answers, participants were then given the opportunity to review the answer key that listed all fifteen correct answers. Participants faced the ethical dilemma of whether or not to copy the correct answers onto their own response sheets before submission for payment.

Surprising to the researchers, of the 125 who completed the study a whopping 69 (55.2%) cheated at least once. Mindfulness apparently did not stop cheating altogether, but of those who cheated, the report found that those who scored high in mindfulness cheated less.

According to authors, “By increasing sensitivity to the size of ethical infractions, mindfulness might also help curb potential ‘slippery slope’ effects as decision makers who begin with only minor infractions progress to more egregious behaviors.”

Study: Ruedy N.E., Schweitzer M.E., “In The Moment: The Effect of Mindfulness on Ethical Decision Making.” Journal of Business Ethics, 18 Feb 2011, pp. 1-15. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-0796-y.

Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.