Originally published: November 28, 2013 5:44 PM
Updated: November 28, 2013 5:59 PM
Thanksgiving may be an official day of gratitude, but research suggests that if you make time for "thank you" every day, you might enjoy life more.
People may think of gratitude as a "passive" gesture, that you wait for something good, then feel grateful, said David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. But a growing body of research is suggesting the opposite is true, according to DeSteno: By choosing to feel gratitude, people can make positive changes in their lives.
"Gratitude isn't passive reflection. It's active," DeSteno said. "And it's not about the past. It's there to help direct our behavior in the future."
In experiments, he and his colleagues set people up to feel grateful, and they found that thankfulness appeared to spur participants to act in more cooperative, less selfish ways.
In one study, people came to the lab to complete a computer task. At some point, certain participants' computers were rigged to "crash." Luckily, a kind stranger who had just completed the same task (and was actually part of the research team) offered help and got the computer running again. Afterward, all of the study participants played a standard economic game in which they have the opportunity to act either strictly in their own self-interest or in a more cooperative way.
In general, DeSteno's team found, the study participants who had gotten help from a stranger during that first test were more likely to be cooperative during the next test. (A survey all of the participants took confirmed that those who'd received help were, in fact, feeling more grateful than their counterparts who'd had smooth sailing.)
That's one of a number of studies, De-Steno said, that suggest that gratitude helps guide behavior. It can encourage you to get more exercise or feel less anxious, or to be more helpful to others (and not just that person you feel you "owe"). Some research has also found links between gratitude and better health, such as lower blood pressure and just feeling physically better. -- HealthDay