Mind, Behaviour and Health: A Randomised Experiment

Yonas Alem (), Hannah Behrendt (), Michèle Belot and Anikó Bíró
Additional contact information
Yonas Alem: University of Gothenburg
Hannah Behrendt: University of Edinburgh

No 10019, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Behavioural attitudes towards risk and time, as well as behavioural biases such as present bias, are thought to be important drivers of unhealthy lifestyle choices. This paper makes the first attempt to explore the possibility of training the mind to alter these attitudes and biases, and health-related behaviours in particular, using a randomized controlled experiment. The training technique we consider is a well-known psychological technique called "mindfulness", which is believed to improve self-control and reduce stress. We conduct the experiment with 139 participants, half of whom receive a four-week mindfulness training, while the other half are asked to watch a four-week series of historical documentaries. We evaluate the impact of our interventions on risk-taking and inter-temporal decisions, as well as on a range of measures of health-related behaviours. We find evidence that mindfulness training reduces perceived stress, but only weak evidence on its impact on behavioural traits and health-related behaviours. Our findings have significant implications for a new domain of research on training the mind to alter behavioural traits and biases that play important roles in lifestyle.

Keywords: present bias; behavioural traits; health-related behaviours; stress; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 C91 D81 I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 70 pages
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: PLoS ONE, 2021, 16 (11), e0258172

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Related works:
Working Paper: Mind, Behaviour and Health - a Randomised Experiment (2016)
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