Geoff W. Sutton Blog: Gratitude: The Effects of Expressing Thanks

Can expressing thanks really make a difference in your life?

A classic and oft cited study suggests the act of writing about things we are thankful or grateful for is good for us. Here’s a summary of what Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough found in a sample of 192 college students— mostly women (147).

The Research Method

The students were divided into three experimental groups at the beginning of a quarter.

The students completed 10 weekly reports.

The three groups:

1. Gratitude. They were asked to think about last week and write down 5 things that they were grateful or thankful for.

2. Hassles. The researchers explained that hassles are things that are irritating. They were to think about what happened today and list up to 5 hassles.

3. Events. The students were asked to think about the past week and write 5 events that impacted them.

How the researchers measured change in the participants—what the participants did.

1. They rated their feelings using 30 terms like anger, sad, and happy.

2. They completed a 13-item physical symptom checklist of such things as headaches, upset stomach, and sore muscles.

3. They recorded how they coped with the most pressing problem in the past week. The researchers were looking for a grateful response to any help they received. The scale was internally consistent—alpha = .92.

4. They rated their general wellbeing for the past week.

5. They rated their expectations for the week ahead, which assessed such dimensions as pessimistic - optimistic.

What Happened?

Gratitude:

After creating a measure of gratitude from all the data collected, they compared the ratings for the groups using a one-way ANOVA. The high score obtained by the gratitude writing group was significantly higher than for those in the hassles group but not more than those in the events group.

Feelings: The groups were not significantly different on their ratings of positive or negative feelings.

Wellbeing: The gratitude group had significantly higher ratings.

Expectations: The gratitude group had significantly higher ratings.

Physical health

Symptoms: The gratitude group reported significantly fewer symptoms.

Exercise: The gratitude group spent much more time exercising that those in the hassle group.

Response to help: Those who reported grateful responses to help also reported higher overall wellbeing.

Does Expressing Gratitude Have an Effect?

The results of this study, and other studies, offers scientific evidence that expressing gratitude in writing is a helpful thing to do. The contrast to focusing on life's hassles is especially helpful in understanding potential effects on our feelings and expectations. There's even a link to health and general wellbeing.

No study is perfect. By now, you can find a lot of research supporting the positive effects of gratitude.

Notes

The article listed below includes three studies. This post just summarizes the first study.

Hashtags #gratitude #thankfulness #wellbeing #optimism

Reference

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377

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