Evaluation of the "Rethink Stress" Mindset Intervention: A Metacognitive Approach to Changing Mindsets

Experimental research has demonstrated that a stress-is-enhancing mindset can be induced and can improve outcomes by presenting information on the enhancing nature of stress. However, experimental evidence, media portrayals, and personal experience about the debilitating nature of stress may challenge this mindset. Thus, the traditional approach of focusing on the more "desired" mindset without arming participants against encounters with the less desired mindsets may not be sustainable in the face of conflicting information. How might this limitation be resolved? Here, we present three randomized-controlled interventions that test the efficacy of a "metacognitive approach." In this approach, participants are given more balanced information about the nature of stress along with metacognitive information on the power of their mindsets aimed at empowering them to choose a more adaptive mindset even in the face of conflicting information. In Experiment 1, employees of a large finance company randomized to the metacognitive mindset intervention reported greater increases in stress-is-enhancing mindsets and greater improvements in self-reported measures of physical health symptoms and interpersonal-skill work performance 4 weeks later compared to a waitlist control. Experiment 2, adapted to be distributed electronically via multimedia modules, replicates the effects on stress mindset and symptoms. Experiment 3 compares the metacognitive stress mindset intervention with a more traditional stress mindset manipulation. The metacognitive approach led to greater initial increases in a stress-is-enhancing mindset relative to the traditional intervention, and these increases were sustained after exposure to contradictory information. Taken together, these results provide support for a metacognitive approach to mindset change.Public Significance StatementWhile previous research has shown that a stress-is-enhancing mindset can be beneficial, conflicting information from personal experience and media portrayals may make it challenging to maintain this mindset. The study tested a new approach called the "metacognitive approach," which provides participants with more balanced information about stress and empowers them to choose a more adaptive mindset even in the face of conflicting information. Results from three experiments showed that the metacognitive approach was effective in increasing stress-is-enhancing mindsets and improving physical health symptoms and work performance. These findings suggest that the metacognitive approach could be a useful tool for mindset change in areas where the effects are ambiguous or paradoxical, such as stress.