The results of a research study looking at whether meditation at work is beneficial or detrimental was recently reported in the New York Times (Sunday, June 17, 2018) in the article “Don’t Meditate at Work”.  In this article, the authors of a large research study suggest that mindfulness meditation, while perhaps beneficial in other settings, actually decreases motivation on work tasks and is “bad news for proponents of meditation in the work place.”

As consumers of news, we often take things we read at face value.  This can be especially true of scientific research that we read in the newspaper and elsewhere, where we often don’t question the claims that are being made. But we need to learn to be cautious consumers, reading the fine print; we also need to be accurate scientists, being careful that our claims match the research conducted, and that we don’t overgeneralize results; and we need to rely on our media to make sure that what is being published is accurately portrayed, as it will likely influence a wide audience, often naive to the subject matter at hand.

I would like to unpack some of the major flaws of the above study that make it puzzling to me how the researchers drew the conclusions they seem to be suggesting.  CLICK HERE TO READ MORE…