An app meditation trial keeps its null result visible
A large randomized study found no preregistered meditation-versus-music outcome survived correction, with substantial missing endpoint data limiting inference.
A BMC Psychology paper published November 5 randomized 1,211 adults to four weeks of app-guided meditation or a classical-music comparison. The meditation groups practiced loving-kindness, mantra, body scan or nondual approaches.
The comparison includes the missing data
After correction for multiple comparisons, no preregistered meditation-versus-control outcome remained statistically significant. The preregistered technique-specific hypotheses were also unsupported. The paper reports exploratory findings separately, including a possible relationship between a personality measure and working-memory response.
Only 43% of randomized participants supplied endpoint data, and missingness was not random. That limits what can be inferred from the people who completed the program, even with a large starting sample.
For teachers reading digital-practice research, the setting matters: four weeks, an app and an active music comparison. This study does not directly test a sustained teaching relationship or a live group class. Its useful contribution is a clearly reported result with qualifications, rather than an invitation to explain an unwelcome finding away.
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