The Science of Gratitude: Finding Your Path to Thankfulness
As Thanksgiving approaches, many of us encounter the familiar nudge to express gratitude. The holiday’s very name contains “thanks,” after all. Yet if the thought of writing gratitude lists or heartfelt thank-you letters makes you cringe, you’re not alone in that reaction.
“It feels cringe,” acknowledges Sarah Schnitker, a personality psychologist at Baylor University. Despite our potential discomfort, research consistently shows that gratitude practices offer genuine benefits. Across numerous studies, gratitude has been linked to stronger relationships, increased resilience, and even improved physical health markers like blood pressure. “You name it, and there is a study that has established a relationship between the two things,” explains Michael McCullough, a social psychologist at the University of California, San Diego. While McCullough admits some of these benefits may be overstated due to methodological limitations in certain studies, the evidence still points to gratitude as one of the few practices consistently associated with increased happiness. Even when the boost is small and temporary, these “small moments of joy” accumulate over time when practiced regularly.
The concept of gratitude has evolved since researchers began studying it earnestly about twenty years ago with the rise of positive psychology. Initially defined narrowly as thanking another person to repay a social debt—essentially the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” dynamic—scientists now recognize this social gratitude likely evolved as an essential bonding mechanism for human survival. “Its basic function is to establish friendships,” McCullough explains. However, many people resist feeling indebted to others, particularly those who highly value autonomy or come from cultures where social indebtedness triggers guilt. This has led researchers to explore broader forms of gratitude directed toward more abstract benefactors like God, beauty, or nature—what they term “transcendent gratitude.” This expanded definition acknowledges that for many people worldwide, gratitude often involves thanking something larger than oneself.
Different gratitude practices yield varying benefits, according to recent research. In a comprehensive study published in May in the Journal of Positive Psychology, McCullough and his team ranked seven gratitude interventions by their effectiveness at enhancing positive emotions. Writing a text or letter of gratitude to a specific recipient proved most effective, while simply listing blessings showed the least impact. Middle-ground practices included expressing gratitude to God and mental subtraction exercises, where participants listed five things they felt thankful for and then imagined life without them. Importantly, individual beliefs and preferences significantly influence which practices work best. In a separate study involving more than 800 religious participants, Schnitker’s team found that those who wrote gratitude letters to God experienced greater positive emotions than those who wrote general gratitude lists or letters to other people.
The key to effective gratitude practice lies in personalization—finding approaches that align with your worldview and personality. Just as people customize their exercise routines to match their fitness goals, gratitude practices should be tailored to individual preferences and objectives. Someone uncomfortable with spiritual expressions might find greater benefit in thanking nature rather than a deity. Those who dread writing formal letters might achieve similar results with a quick text message of appreciation. “Folks need to search for how gratitude might work in their own lives,” advises Anthony Ahrens, a social psychologist at American University who wasn’t involved in McCullough’s research.
Without intentional gratitude practice, negative emotions can easily dominate our perspectives. Research published in 2019 in Psychological Science revealed that children naturally develop the instinct to punish perceived wrongs before they develop the habit of expressing thanks for help received. “Gratitude has to be taught. It’s not something that’s natural,” explains Nadia Chernyak, a cognitive developmental psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. “Yet grudges are really natural.” This natural negativity bias makes gratitude practices all the more important as a counterbalance.
For the determinedly cynical, McCullough’s research offers a cautionary note. While most control conditions in his studies had neutral effects on emotions, one specific practice—listing daily hassles and complaints—caused positive emotions to plummet significantly. “If you want to make somebody grumpy, we know just the trick,” he jokes. As we approach the holiday season, perhaps the most practical question is simple: Do we want more joy or more misery in our lives? The science suggests that finding a personally meaningful way to express gratitude, however small, might be worth the momentary discomfort of feeling “cringe” for the cumulative benefits it brings to our emotional well-being.
