Buddhism is More Than Just Meditation: A Cognitive Non-Attachment Training for Social Stress

Abstract

Buddhism is essentially a cognitive-behavioral intervention where oral teachings and meditation work together to develop nonattachment, a mind-state considered to be the antidote to all human suffering. The present work investigated a twelve-minute cognitive nonattachment induction that taught a wisdom training called the “Three Marks of Existence.” We expected nonattached attitudes to increase following the training. Anxious reactivity to a public speaking task was also expected to be reduced. Results were mixed, and suggested that the training increased agreement with nonattachment world-views, and reduced threat appraisals as hypothesized. However, the training generally did not reduce anxiety measures, although it was effective across several measures among women. These results suggest that nonattachment could be an important mind-state for mitigating the emotional and social stressors inherent to everyday life, and that more research is needed to better understand the cognitive and behavioral development on nonattachment.