Perspective: The case for gratitude
As soon as some people hear the word “gratitude” in a conversation about well-being, they turn away with an eye roll, off in search of something more complicated and sophisticated. That is unfortunate. Far from being something sentimental and superfluous, the power of gratitude to affect lives is backed up by a surprising amount of science.
I was recently invited to address an event organized by the students in the top-rated dental school in the U.S. It was an “evening of appreciation” in which about 30 certificates of appreciation were awarded to faculty members. The event was held in a university ballroom with a large screen at the front showing photos of the individuals — one at a time— throughout the evening. Alongside the photos were two or three student comments about the positive impact these teachers had made in their lives and education.
I was struck by the power of this event, and also by how rare it seemed. According to the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, only 10% of employees say they express gratitude to their colleagues every day, and 60% say they never or very rarely express it.
This is unfortunate because abundant evidence exists that experiencing and expressing gratitude has important positive effects on individuals, on families and on organizations. For example, a great deal of research has been conducted on the relationships between experiencing gratitude and resulting heart rhythms and heart health. In one summary of a broad array of studies, the authors concluded that gratitude is inherent not only in humans, but also in primates such as monkeys. The expression of gratitude is universal, they discovered, across all cultures and peoples.
Many associations between gratitude and human health, well-being and mortality have been well-established. It’s almost dizzying to consider the variety of gratitude consequences, including enhanced cognitive processing of sensory information, improved health and increased longevity, cognitive flexibility and creativity, highly ordered and coherent patterns in heart rhythms, increased efficiency of fluid exchange, filtration and absorption between the capillaries and tissues, and enhanced heart rate variability (which approaches the highest levels possible when these virtuous states are experienced).
Furthermore, gratitude has been proven to make people less lonely and sick less often. It boosts immune functioning, alleviates aches and pains, and reduces the lifetime risk for depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even suicide. It even helps people sleep better at night.
How much would you be willing to pay for a bottle of pills promising even a fraction of these things, and without any side effects?
Well, for people who practice gratitude, they are here for the taking and completely free, aside from the cost of a little personal effort.
How to exercise this muscle
Don’t miss that word “practice.” It’s easy to talk about people who are naturally “grateful” as if the quality were innate. But the research is clear: this is something we can get better at — and it doesn’t take complex, expensive interventions.
In one study of patients with Stage B heart failure, half were asked to keep a daily gratitude journal — for example, writing down three things for which they were grateful every day. After three months, their hearts had healthier resting rates and showed significantly fewer biological signs that their heart disease was getting worse compared to those patients not keeping a gratitude journal.
Related
Several studies have been conducted in high school and college classrooms in which students were assigned to keep a journal during a semester. In these investigations, half the students were assigned to write down each day things for which they were grateful, or the best things that happened to them during the day. The other half wrote down events, interactions, or problems they encountered.
At the end of the semester, students who kept gratitude journals experienced fewer physical symptoms such as headaches and colds; felt better about their lives as a whole; were more optimistic about the coming week; had higher states of alertness, attentiveness, determination and energy; reported fewer hassles in their lives; engaged in more helping behavior toward other people; experienced better sleep quality and had a sense of being more connected to others compared to the other students.
In addition, they were absent and tardy less often and had higher grade-point averages. Experiencing gratitude had a significant impact on student classroom performance as well as their personal lives.
Gratitude changes the brain
Don’t be mistaken in thinking this is just a psychological effect. In another study of individuals entering psychotherapy for depression and/or anxiety, half of the patients were assigned to write a letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks. These were compared with other therapy patients who either wrote about their deepest thoughts and impressions, or did not write at all.
Three months later, brain scans were conducted and a variety of well-being measures were collected. Regardless of gender, age or initial levels of depression or anxiety, uniquely positive and significant changes in brain activity were observed in the grateful letter writers, compared with others. In particular, areas of the brain most attuned to positive emotions, learning and positive activity were substantially affected (this was true even if the letters were never sent).
Remarkably, the positive effects of the gratitude intervention were found months later to be greater than the effects of the therapy itself. As Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast teaches, “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.”
‘Give thanks in all things’
In my own organization-level research, gratitude has been associated with improvements in productivity, quality of outputs, profitability, innovation, customer retention and employee turnover.
In these trying times, where many organizations are facing pressure, economically and otherwise, this awareness is even more valuable. Indeed, resilience and financial performance have been shown to be significantly higher in organizations with high scores in demonstrating gratitude.
Like a life jacket that protects against drowning in deep waters, this simple practice can buffer those we work with and love against suffocating negative emotions such as envy, hostility, irritation and worry — helping center the mind on the good in the present moment and helps us recognize and value what is, rather than dwelling endlessly on what could be.
This is clearly relevant to everyone who could use some extra strength in these trying times. Perhaps the biblical counsel to “give thanks in all things” and “live in thanksgiving daily” should not be tucked away in ancient texts, or cross-stitched on a wall.
From a basic public health perspective, the collective prescription of expressing gratitude remains a wise and especially effective one, if we wish to help the organizations in which we live and work become healthier, happier and more productive.
It’s simple: find more ways to verbalize or write your gratitude, be that publicly or privately in a journal. Few things will do you (or the world around you) more good, more quickly.
Kim Cameron is the William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He was formerly the dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
