Objectives <p>Despite the growing use of mindfulness meditation in clinical, occupational, and educational settings, the factors influencing its effects on physical and mental health remain poorly understood. This study aimed to replicate and extend prior findings suggesting that pain catastrophizing moderates the effect of mindfulness vs. distraction on affective pain, while also exploring repetitive negative thinking (RNT) as a potential moderator.</p> Method <p>One hundred ten healthy students without regular meditation practice were randomised to a mindfulness or a distraction induction and subsequently completed self-report questionnaires on pain catastrophizing, RNT, and mindfulness. While they were administered seven mildly painful heat stimuli, participants listened to a brief pre-recorded mindfulness induction emphasising open awareness (mindfulness group) or pre-recorded fairy tales (distraction group). Before and after the pain induction, and 2 weeks later, participants reported their perceived pain and affect.</p> Results <p>The mindfulness induction did not yield differential effects on perceived pain relative to the distraction condition. Moreover, neither pain catastrophizing nor RNT moderated the effect of the experimental induction on any measure of perceived pain.</p> Conclusions <p>The present findings suggest that the effects of a brief mindfulness induction on sensory, affective, and attentional aspects of pain are comparable to those of a distraction induction. Moreover, no evidence was found for a disordinal moderation effect, indicating that pain catastrophizing and RNT did not differentially influence the relative impact of mindfulness vs. distraction on perceived pain.</p> Preregistration <p>This study was preregistered on Open Science Framework (<a href="https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/CZDMG">https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/CZDMG</a>).</p>