Journey 5 · Gratitude
Gratitude and Generosity Tend to Travel Together
A meta-analysis of 91 studies and 18,342 people found a moderate link between gratitude and acts that benefit others, strongest when people were repaying a kindness.
Researchers pooled 91 studies with 18,342 participants to ask how gratitude relates to prosocial behavior, meaning actions that benefit others. They found a moderate link (r = .374). It was larger when people were repaying someone who had helped them than when helping others, and larger for gratitude felt in the moment than for gratitude as a trait (Ma, Tunney & Ferguson, 2017).
Put plainly, gratitude and kindness tend to go together, most of all toward the people who were kind to you. The link isn't equal toward everyone: across the studies, it was strongest toward benefactors.
Journey 5, Gratitude, guided by Zawadi, puts this to work in its Fruit step, which asks you to trace the ripple: who your gratitude will serve. Whose kindness would you most like to return, or pass on?
The research
Strong evidence Replicated findings and meta-analyses.
- Ma, L. K., Tunney, R. J., & Ferguson, E. (2017). Does gratitude enhance prosociality? A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(6), 601–635.
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