The role of mindfulness facets in affective forecasting

Mindfulness is a nonjudgmental, present-centered attention to one’s thoughts and emotions. Using a sample of 188 young adults who forecasted their emotions for the weeks following the 2008 Presidential election, we tested our prediction that facets of mindfulness would decrease the impact bias, a well-known error in affective forecasting. Mindfulness was measured with the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006). One facet of mindfulness, observing one’s internal state, was associated with more moderate affective forecasts as well as a decreased susceptibility to the impact bias. Findings highlight sources of individual differences in susceptibility to the impact bias and shed light on how to improve people’s ability to forecast for emotional experiences.