A one-tap goal question didn't make people listen to meditation on more days
Who it’s about: Adults
- No difference
People asked to pick a goal for the week listened on no more days than people asked about the teacher.
- Action: Set a specific goaltested
- Action: Practise mindfulnessused
- Rule: Through an appused
- Rule: In a single sessionused
Large trial of 18,559 Spotify users who listened to meditation · vs a pop-up question about the teacher · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ not yet checked by other scientists; summary claims more than the results show
The study
Who took part
18,559 adult Spotify users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. All had listened to at least 5 minutes of one teacher's meditation content in June 2025.
What they did
Two groups saw one pop-up in the app that asked how many of the next 7 days they planned to listen. The answer choices came in opposite orders for these two groups. The other group saw a pop-up that asked how they felt about the teacher's content.
What happened
In all groups, people listened on about 1 day in the next week. The order of the answers changed which goals people picked. A small gain for one order went away once 'Prefer not to say' answers were counted.
Source
Goal Setting and Anchoring Effects on Meditation Using a Digital Platform: A Large‑Scale Digital Field Study (Preprint) (2025)
DOI: 10.2196/preprints.85801 (opens in a new tab)
