Mindfulness witnessed a substantial popularity surge in the past decade, especially as digitally self-administered interventions became available at relatively low costs. Yet, it is uncertain whether they effectively help reduce stress. In a preregistered (OSF https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/UF4JZ ; retrospective registration at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06308744 ) multi-site study (nsites = 37, nparticipants = 2,239, 70.4% women, Mage = 22.4, s.d.age = 10.1, all fluent English speakers), we experimentally tested whether four single, standalone mindfulness exercises effectively reduced stress, using Bayesian mixed-effects models. All exercises proved to be more efficacious than the active control. We observed a mean difference of 0.27 (d = -0.56; 95% confidence interval, -0.43 to -0.69) between the control condition (M = 1.95, s.d. = 0.50) and the condition with the largest stress reduction (body scan: M = 1.68, s.d. = 0.46). Our findings suggest that mindfulness may be beneficial for reducing self-reported short-term stress for English speakers from higher-income countries.

Annecy Behavioral Science Lab Saint Jorioz France

Ashland University Ashland OH USA

Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia

Behavioural Science Institute Radboud University Nijmegen the Netherlands

Centre for Research in Autism and Education Institute of Education University College London London UK

Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences Slovak Academy of Sciences Štefánikova Bratislava Slovakia

Department of Economics Management and Statistics University of Milano Bicocca Milan Italy

Department of Mental Health Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University Baltimore MD USA

Department of Psychology and Counselling The Open University Milton Keynes UK

Department of Psychology College of Social and Behavioral Science University of Utah Salt Lake City UT USA

Department of Psychology University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Glendale Community College Glendale AZ USA

DigiPen Institute of Technology Redmond WA USA

Eastern Oregon University La Grande OR USA

Faculty of Education Institute for Research and Development of Education Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Goldsmiths University of London London UK

Idaho State University Pocatello ID USA

Institut Universitaire de France Paris France

Institute of Psychology Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Iowa State University Ames IA USA

LIP PC2s Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble France

LMU Munich Munich Germany

Memorial University of Newfoundland St John's Newfoundland Canada

Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK

Pace University New York NY USA

Pennsylvania Western University California California PA USA

Private University Seeburg Castle Seekirchen am Wallersee Austria

Psychology department Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles CA USA

San Jose State University San José CA USA

School of Law and Justice The University of Southern Queensland Ipswich Queensland Australia

School of Psychology Macquarie University Sydney New South Wales Australia

School of Psychology Swansea University Swansea UK

Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences A*STAR Singapore Singapore

Spiessens Coaching Solutions Ltd Manchester UK

Springfield College Springfield MA USA

St Olaf College Northfield MN USA

SUNY Brockport Brockport NY USA

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Ontario Canada

University of California Merced Merced CA USA

University of Canberra Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia

University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

University of Houston Houston TX USA

University of Konstanz Konstanz Germany

University of Limerick Limerick Ireland

University of North Florida Jacksonville FL USA

University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls IA USA

University of Southern Indiana Evansville IN USA

University of the Fraser Valley Abbotsford British Colombia Canada

Wayne State University Detroit MI USA

Wittenberg University Springfield OH USA

Nat Hum Behav. 2024 Sep;8(9):1819. doi: 10.1038/s41562-024-01947-z. PubMed

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