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Gratitude: prompting behaviours that build relationships
Monica Y Bartlett1, Paul Condon, Jourdan Cruz
1Department of Psychology, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258, USA. bartlettm@gonzaga.edu
Cognition & Emotion
|April 19, 2011
Summary
Gratitude fosters social bonds by encouraging affiliation and inclusive behaviors towards benefactors. This experimental research demonstrates how feeling grateful actively strengthens relationships, even at personal cost.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Gratitude is theorized to be crucial for social relationship maintenance.
- Existing research links gratitude to increased relationship satisfaction.
- Mechanisms underlying gratitude's relational benefits remain underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide experimental evidence for how gratitude facilitates relationship-building behaviors.
- To investigate gratitude's role in promoting social affiliation.
- To examine gratitude's impact on costly, inclusive behaviors towards benefactors.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted to test the effects of gratitude.
- Study 1 assessed gratitude's influence on social affiliation choices.
- Study 2 examined gratitude's facilitation of socially inclusive behaviors, even at personal cost.
Main Results:
- Gratitude significantly promoted social affiliation, increasing the desire to spend time with a benefactor.
- Gratitude facilitated inclusive behaviors directed towards benefactors.
- These inclusive behaviors occurred even when they incurred personal costs.
Conclusions:
- Gratitude actively promotes behaviors that build and maintain social relationships.
- Experimental evidence supports gratitude's role in fostering affiliation and costly prosociality.
- Findings elucidate the behavioral pathways through which gratitude strengthens social bonds.
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