A multinational megastudy of the effects of gratitude practices on subjective well-being
Abstract
Scholars have observed people from a variety of cultures using a variety of gratitude-related practices to change their emotions, outlooks, and social relationships. Across 34 countries purposively sampled to cover a broad set of cross-cultural differences (total N = 10,696), we experimentally tested the effects of 6 brief gratitude interventions on subjective moods, life outlooks, and social evaluations. Compared to 3 control tasks, gratitude practices immediately produced theorized improvements in positive affect ( d = 0.37), negative affect ( d = −0.22), optimism ( d = 0.24), life satisfaction ( d = 0.12), indebtedness ( d = 0.15), and envy ( d = −0.16). Notably, these effects varied across different gratitude practices (0.00 < τ practice < 0.08) and countries (0.10 < τ country < 0.19). For instance, based on existing evidence, stakeholders can expect gratitude interventions deployed in a randomly selected country to improve positive affect—but not our other measured outcomes. To guide future inquiry into why this might be the case, we provide exploratory Bayesian estimates of the importance of 12 cross-cultural differences.
Article Details
Journal Info
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Authors (36)
Nicholas A. Coles
Department of Psychology, University of Florida
Annabel V. Dang
Department of Psychology, University of Florida
Shigehiro Oishi
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago
Abigail Adade
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
Aderonke A. Akintola
Department of Psychology, Redeemer’s University
Beatriz B. de Souza
National Institute of Science and Technology on Social and Affective Neuroscience
Biljana Gjoneska
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Christine R. Harris
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego
Dev Kesarwani
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Dinara Pisareva
Department of Political Science and Internal Relations, Nazarbayev University
Eugene Y. J. Tee
Department of Psychology, HELP University
Goo Lyann
Department of Psychology, HELP University
Gul Gunaydin
Psychology Program, Sabancı University
Gyuri Lee
Department of Sociology, Kyung Hee University
Hongbo Yu
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara
Hyewon Choi
Department of Sociology, Kyung Hee University
JohnBosco Chika Chukwuorji
Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria
Karoline Klitgaard
Department of Psychology, Aarhus University
Maciej Behnke
Magnus Bergquist
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg
Marit Gunda Gundersen Engeset
Department of Business, Marketing and Law, University of South-Eastern Norway
Nattasuda Taephant
Department of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University
Nikita Durnev
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Ognen Spasovski
Department of Psychology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
Paulo Sergio Boggio
National Institute of Science and Technology on Social and Affective Neuroscience
Ram Manohar Singh
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Robin Irmel
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg
Sergio Barbosa
School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario
Shangcheng Zhao
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara
Sinem Acar-Burkay
Department of Business, Marketing and Law, University of South-Eastern Norway
Stefan Pfattheicher
Department of Psychology, Aarhus University
Tatsunori Ishii
Victor Goh Weng Yew
Department of Psychology, HELP University
Vivian Dzokoto
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
Zeynep Soyalan
Psychology Program, Sabancı University
Michael E. McCullough
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego