Grateful to help you or grateful to help me? An investigation of the effects of expressing gratitude to benefit oneself

Abstract Gratitude interventions are often promoted as self-help exercises. However, expressing gratitude to benefit oneself may paradoxically undermine well-being, as this mindset shifts the focus away from the recipient of gratitude. Across two studies (N = 475), participants were randomly assigned to compose a gratitude letter using three rationales: self-focused (emphasizing benefits to the self), other-focused (emphasizing benefits to the recipient), and neutral (no rationale). The neutral group reported lower well-being than the two experimental groups (self-focused and other-focused) on a variety of outcomes. However, the experimental groups did not differ on main study outcomes, thus failing to support the hypothesis that self-focused reasons for expressing gratitude result in poorer well-being than other-focused reasons. However, text analyses revealed that the compositions of the letters differed between the self-focused and other-focused conditions. Individuals in the self-focused condition tended to write letters that were more self-referential, longer, less positive, and that used more insight/cognitive processing language, whereas individuals in the other-focused condition tended to write letters that were more other-referential, shorter, and more positive. Our results suggest that inclusion of a rationale enhances the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention, and the emphasis of the rationale can alter the way in which a gratitude letter is written. Implications for future research are discussed in light of these findings.