Andrew Hafenbrack, an assistant professor at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, had some study subjects meditate for 15 minutes while others took a break to read the news or think about their lives. Then he asked people in both groups to perform a task—such as editing a cover letter—and before they started, surveyed them about their motivation to do it and the time they’d spend on it. The meditators felt less inspired to do the task and said they’d devote less time to it. The conclusion: Mindfulness is demotivating.

里斯本天主教大学商学院助理教授安德鲁·哈芬布拉克（Andrew Hafenbrack）组织一项实验，其中部分参与者冥想15分钟，其他人则看手机或发呆放松，之后两组参与者要完成编辑文件等任务。研究者调查了参与者完成任务的积极性和打算投入的时间，结果发现，进行冥想的参与者积极性更低，且打算投入的时间较少。研究者由此得出结论：冥想使人没干劲。

Hafenbrack: My coauthor, Kathleen Vohs, and I had expected meditators to show less motivation. Statistically, their motivation level was indeed about 10% lower than the level of the people who hadn’t practiced mindfulness. That’s not nothing. But what surprised us was that despite feeling less inspired, those in the mindful group completed their tasks just as well as the control group did. We conducted 14 versions of this experiment, and in every one meditators performed the task equally well. In one case they even did it better.

哈芬布拉克：实验结果符合我和合作者凯瑟琳·沃斯（Kathleen Vohs）的预期。统计结果表明，冥想者的积极性比其他人低10%左右，这个差异很显著。不过让我们惊讶的是，尽管积极性较低，冥想组完成任务的表现并不比另一组差。我们总共进行了14次实验，冥想组每次表现都不落下风，有一次甚至超过对照组。

HBR: So they were unenthusiastic but proficient?

Yes, and that was unexpected. If you look at the literature on goal setting, you’ll find probably 500 studies that have shown a correlation between motivation and performance. More-motivated people perform better and vice versa. It’s very unusual to see motivation and performance not going in the same direction. It’s just weird.

HBR：所以说他们积极性不高，但能把事情做好。

是的，这让我们很意外。浏览一下目标制定方面的理论文献，你会看到差不多500项研究都证明，工作积极性和表现存在相关性。积极性更高的人表现更佳，反之亦然。积极性和表现出现背离，这很不常见，非常奇怪。

How could they be at odds?

Meditators were less focused on the future and more relaxed, and thus less motivated, which should have dampened their performance. But some elements of their experiences were beneficial to it. In particular, meditation gave them a break from stress, obligations, and worries, which helped them concentrate on the next task better. When it came to performance, it seems that the negative effect of reduced motivation and the positive effect of increased task focus canceled each other out.

这是为什么呢？

冥想者较少关注未来，更加放松，因此工作积极性较低。这本该影响工作表现，但冥想体现出了益处。具体来说，冥想让参与者摆脱压力、义务和忧虑，让他们集中精力完成任务。从完成任务的效果看，积极性下降的负面影响和专注度提升的积极影响似乎相互抵消了。

Maybe motivation fell because these people weren’t practiced meditators?

It’s true that this finding is based on one meditation session. I don’t know if our subjects had experience with meditation or not. It’s fair to wonder if the results might be different with a mindfulness veteran. But if people use meditation as a go-to coping mechanism when they’re stressed, I think they’d react the way we saw in our studies.

也许积极性下降是因为参与者对冥想不太熟悉？

确实，参与者在实验中只进行了一次冥想。我不清楚参与者对于冥想是否有经验。不妨猜测，如果参与者平时经常冥想，结果会有所不同。但我认为，如果参与者习惯通过冥想来缓解压力，那么他们在实验中同样会有积极性下降的表现。

Maybe it was the task they did that demotivated them, not the fact that they were so chill.

That’s another thing. Perhaps being in a mindful state helps me see that it’s a dumb task. That’s hard to study in a lab but worth researching. But my guess is that the relaxed, present state that comes from meditating would still lower motivation.

也许问题不在于精神状态，而是任务本身让参与者觉得没劲？

这是另一个问题。也许冥想带来的清醒状态让参与者看出任务很无聊。这在实验室环境下很难验证，但值得研究。不过我的推测是，冥想带来的放松和关注当下的精神状态，会让工作积极性降低。

What made you decide to rain on the mindfulness parade?

Well, I’m not against mindfulness. But the research done on it and on meditation is almost impossibly positive. Among thousands of articles, I’ve seen maybe five that call their value into question. As a researcher and as a person, I just find it hard to believe that anything can be that positive all the time. So I thought, What’s going on here? Are there things that aren’t good about focusing more on the present? That was the idea, and our first study found just that. But what we didn’t foresee was this second part: no reduction in performance.

为什么你要跟冥想，或者说“美式冥想”对着干？

呃，我对冥想没什么意见。但关于冥想的研究结果都那么积极，好像有点过了。我看过几千篇文章，大概只有五篇质疑冥想的价值。从专业和个人角度，我都很难相信有什么东西永远都好。所以我就想，这是怎么回事？精神聚焦当下会不会有消极后果？这就是我们的出发点，而首次研究就有成果。不过我们没有预料到工作表现未受影响这一点。

Do you think results like this will dampen the mindfulness phenomenon?

Mindfulness is just such a big and complicated issue. The concept came from Buddhism 2,000 years ago. It was only about 40 years ago that contemplatives like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mirabai Bush, and Jack Kornfield began to popularize mindfulness and meditation in the West. But the concept has changed. It has become secularized. It focuses less on the original philosophical considerations about how to treat people. There’s no one definition of mindfulness anymore. It’s prayer. It’s meditation. It’s yoga class. It’s as if we’re talking past each other.

你觉得类似这样的研究发现会让冥想热潮降温吗？

美式冥想，即所谓“正念”，是一个复杂的大问题。这个概念来自佛教，可以追溯到两千年前，而乔恩·卡巴特-金（Jon Kabat-Zinn）、米拉拜·布什（Mirabai Bush）、杰克·科恩菲尔德（Jack Kornfield）等冥想界人士在西方推广“正念”和冥想，只是近40年的事。但美式冥想已经偏离了原初的理念，不再关注与他者相关的哲学问题，而是被世俗化了。“正念”没有统一的定义，它可以是祷告，可以是冥想，可以是瑜伽。人们好像都在自说自话。

And now the marketers have their hands on it, and you know what? It’s a great end run around regulation. You can’t get sued for claiming mindfulness the way you can for claiming that you’re organic. So now you can buy mindful mayonnaise in the grocery store.

现在呢，搞营销的都掺和进来了，大家都在打擦边球。“正念”可不像“有机”那么容易被认定为虚假宣传，所以现在超市里都有卖“正念蛋黄酱”的了。

No!

Yes! How is mayo enlightened? And there’s more all the time. I saw a clothing company that used the tagline “attire for the mindful man” and another that offered “mindful clothing” for women. They’re pushing it as far as they can.

I’m primarily a scientist. I don’t have a dog in the fight, so it doesn’t bother me too much, but I see how it bothers others when you say anything negative about mindfulness.

不是吧！

真的！连蛋黄酱都有觉悟了，而且这种东西越来越多。我见过一个服装品牌的广告词是“为正念男士量身打造”，另一家则出售“正念女装”。这些人简直无所不用其极。我是研究者，不参与市场竞争，所以这种事情跟我没多大关系。但如果你批评“正念”，绝对有人不高兴。

Have there been angry reactions to your research?

Oh my, yes! The vitriol over what I think is a tiny criticism. Not even a criticism but an observation that in some very specific cases meditating may be counterproductive. One person called us “behavioral Mengelists,” which is just so extreme and not at all mindful.

这项研究惹人不高兴了吗？

哦，可不是吗！我觉得我们只是提出了轻微的批评，却招来刻薄攻击。我们只是说，在某些非常特定的情况下，冥想可能有损工作表现，这甚至算不上批评。结果有人说我们是“行为学的孟格尔主义者”，这也太极端了，一点也不“正念”。

Will you continue to prick holes in the mindfulness bubble with more research?

In general I’m interested in interventions—the things we could do to help people feel and perform better. I’m also interested in figuring out why interventions may backfire. I won’t make this my career, but it’s important to explore because people are deploying mindfulness programs in organizations. The opportunity costs of doing such programs are big. Look, mindfulness isn’t dangerous or anything. In general it’s a good thing, but let’s make sure we’re not being counterproductive with it. That’s one thing I’m adding to the conversation.

你打算用更多研究来戳破冥想泡沫吗？

一般来讲我感兴趣的是，哪些外部干预能让人们的状态和表现更好。我还想研究为什么有时这种干预会起反作用。我无意一直研究冥想，不过因为很多公司都引入了冥想项目，这个问题还是很重要。这类项目的机会成本很高。我并不是说冥想有危害什么的。总体来说它是有益的，但我们应该确保它不妨碍工作。这是我想提出的观点。

Do you meditate?

Yes, but not every day. Sometimes to help myself fall asleep or before a meeting I expect to be difficult. I do it on demand, like popping an aspirin when I have a headache. This is something else I’m adding to the conversation: Meditation changes how we feel pretty much immediately, so some of the benefits can happen after a single short session. We don’t all need to meditate for an hour every day.

你自己冥想吗？

我会，但不是每天。我有时会用冥想来帮助睡眠，或在比较重要的会议前调整状态。我只在特定情况下冥想，就像头疼时吃片阿司匹林。这也是我想提出的另一个观点：冥想能很快改变我们的状态，所以只需一小会就能起作用。不是所有人都需要每天冥想一小时。

Should HR departments nix their mindfulness programs?

I really hope people don’t read these results and say, “Well, let’s stop meditating.” Given all the other benefits, that would be the worst reaction. Part of the selling point of mindfulness is that you don’t have to have a reason to feel good. Mindfulness takes the edge off—it helps you take control of your life by noticing the world around you as it is and what’s going on inside yourself so that you can make an intentional decision about what to do, rather than avoiding reality or reacting automatically to issues that come up. We need mindfulness.

那么企业HR部门应该取消冥想项目吗？

说真的，我不希望读者看完这篇文章后说：“得了，咱别再冥想了。”冥想毕竟有很多益处，所以停止冥想是糟糕的做法。冥想的卖点之一是，它能让你自发地感觉良好。冥想让你放松下来，帮助你客观观察身心内外的状况，从而自主进行决策，而非逃避现实或机械应对外界变化。这能让你更好地掌控生活。我们需要冥想。

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