Gratitude
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What is gratitude?
Gratitude is the emotion that often accompanies downward social comparison. Dictionary definitions often define it as the feeling of being thankful, which seems a bit circular to me. You can read more about gratitude in general at wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude
Who studies gratitude?
Gratitude research is a recent development evolving out of the positive psychology movement. Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough of the University of California-Davis have done several studies linking gratitude to happiness in undergraduates who keep a gratitude journal. Martin Seligman, one of the most prominent positive psychologists, has done studies validating interventions as increasing happiness.
Does Gratitude lead to happiness?
Yes, with a fairly consistent and moderate-large effect size according to this meta-analysis of the few studies done.
Does_Gratitude_cause_Happiness?_A_Meta-analysis
How did Gratitude evolve?
According to some theorists, gratitude evolved as reciprocity which formed the basis of cooperation. But there can be 'misdirected' reciprocity where people do things for people other than the person they are grateful for.
“[These extensions] can lead to an ‘epidemiology of altruism’ resulting in an explosive increase in altruistic acts,” they conclude. “For a change, this is a pandemic which would be welcomed by all of us.”
For more information, visit Nowak’s Web page, the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at HarvardUniversity: http://www.ped.fas.harvard.edu/ .
Citation: Nowak, Martin A., and Roch, Sebastien. “Upstream reciprocity and the evolution of gratitude.” Proc. R. Soc. B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.0125.
