An exercise like ours might remind people that they need to repay the kindness of others, and they may resent these obligations and even report strong negative feelings toward their benefactors.
So I was surprised at how dramatically positive our results were. To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints and even spent more time exercising than control participants did, and significantly more time exercising than those in the hassles condition nearly 1. This is a massive difference. The gratitude group participants also experienced fewer symptoms of physical illness than those in either of the other two groups.
In a second study, we asked participants to keep journals every day for two weeks. People assigned to express gratitude again showed an impressive array of benefits: On surveys we gave all study participants, people who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition.
They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem—supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves.
We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups these friends were not aware of which experimental condition the participants were in. We got similar results in a study of adults with neuromuscular disorders, many of whom suffered from fatigue, slowly progressive muscle weakness, muscle and joint pain, and muscular atrophy.
Little is known about factors affecting the quality of life among people with neuromuscular disorders. This study gave us a unique opportunity to determine if the gratitude intervention could help improve the well-being of these people coping with a chronic physical disease.
Participants in the gratitude condition showed significantly more positive emotions and satisfaction with life than a control group, while also showing fewer negative emotions.
They also felt more optimism about the upcoming week and felt closer and more connected to others, even though many lived alone and did not increase their actual contact time with others.
Participants in the gratitude condition also reported getting more hours of sleep each night, spending less time awake before falling asleep, and feeling more refreshed upon awakening. This finding is enormous, in that sleep disturbance and poor sleep quality have been identified as central indicators of poor overall well-being, as well as increased risk for physical disease and premature death.
It may sound simplistic, but the evidence cannot be ignored: If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep. One of the important features of all of these studies is that we randomly assigned participants to conditions.
Many people who tend toward pessimism may have been placed in the gratitude group, just as optimists may have been in the other conditions. Plus, few studies have been able to successfully create interventions to increase happiness or well-being; we were able to do so with an exercise that required minimal effort. For example, additional research Mike and I conducted has shown that individuals who report habitually experiencing gratitude engage more frequently in kind or helpful behaviors than do people who experience gratitude less often.
According to their friends, grateful people engaged in more supportive, kind, and helpful behaviors e. In their creative studies, participants worked on a computer-generated task; when they were about to receive their score, the screen suddenly went blank. Upon leaving the laboratory, the participant was asked if they would volunteer to assist in another, ostensibly unrelated experiment, which involved completing a tedious and taxing survey. This suggests the unique effects of gratitude in motivating helping behavior, more so than the general effects of simply being in a positive mood.
So why is gratitude good? For two main reasons, I think. First, gratitude strengthens social ties. This was beautifully illustrated in a story by Roger, a man we interviewed in our research on patients with chronic neuromuscular disease.
Faced with escalating medical bills and an extended period of unemployment, Roger was on the verge of losing his home—until friends organized a benefit party to raise money for him. He wrote in his gratitude journal:.
Well the big day came after much anticipation. About two hundred people showed up, bought raffle tickets, drank, danced, partied and ate til 1 a. We went up on stage to thank everyone amid joy, tears, and hugs. We saw so many friends and co-workers it was truly a great night. My doctor and nurse also attended and our priest stopped by for a few beers—I keep thinking of more highlights as I write.
I feel myself almost tearing up as I write. My heart warms as I see the people that attended. I also feel a need to help or reach out to others whenever I can help by speaking or just listening. The concept of pay it forward is ancient. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody. Heinlein later started a humanitarian organization, the Heinlein Society, known for abiding by a pay it forward philosophy.
It is dedicated to teaching it to others. The phrase and concept inspired an award-winning novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde, which features a young protagonist who launches a pay it forward campaign.
Hyde then established the Pay It Forward foundation, committed to spreading various acts of kindness around the globe. Her novel was adapted into a major motion film in , further helping to make pay it forward a household phrase and inspiring Pay It Forward Day, April 28th, organized since Pay it forward is used by the general population in both oral speech and writing.
While mostly in its original sense, the phrase is used to suggest a more general passing-along rather than a specific act of service. In fact, there are some organizations that allow people to pay it forward anonymously, donating money or performing good deeds without hoping for recognition. As far as the receiver of the money, gift, or good deed is concerned, he or she is told only to do something good for someone else.
The concept has a firm foundation in history. Ben Franklin described it in a letter he wrote to Benjamin Webb in , in which he wrote about his intention to help Webb by lending him some money.
He did not want to be repaid directly, however. Instead, Franklin hoped that Webb would at some point meet an honest man in need of financial help and pass the money along to him. Paying it forward doesn't have to mean giving a large some of money or expending a lot of effort.
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