Saying our Thank Yous
‘Tis the season for gratitude and overindulgence. Whether or not you celebrate with a full-size turkey or get together with friends and family, a plethora of insights from behavioral economics and behavioral science can help you maximize the benefits of some holiday traditions.
Many behavioral scientists will suggest that you leverage choice architecture such as using smaller plates or even using chopsticks to influence your food consumption. Although self-control and overeating are hot topics among us behavioral scientists during this time of year, let’s also not forget the Thanksgiving tradition of gratitude.
What exactly is gratitude?
Psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough define gratitude as a two-step process (2003):
“Recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome.”
“Recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome,” meaning that we can be grateful to other people and to the world, but not to ourselves.
But are there any benefits of gratitude in our daily life?
The answer is yes! Research in positive psychology has shown that experiencing gratitude has a myriad of benefits. Feeling gratitude has positive consequences for well-being, mood, health, self-esteem, and better sleep (Wood et al., 2010). Research conducted with fifty couples also find that one’s felt and expressed gratitude positively relate to relationship satisfaction (Gordon et al., 2011).
Specifically, in one study, Emmons and McCullough asked participants to keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis. Compared to participants who were instructed to keep a journal of hassles or neutral life events, those in the gratitude condition felt better about their lives on the whole, reported greater optimism, fewer physical symptoms, and spent more time exercising (2003).
Gratitude at work, literally
Gratitude has many ramifications for the workplace as well. If you’re a leader, it may be intuitive that showing your employees you appreciate them can contribute to employee motivation, but it also has many other spillover effects such as serving as an “antidote against toxic emotions [such as jealousy or injustice] at the workplace” (Emmons, 2003).
Gratitude has been shown to facilitate prosocial behavior and can lead employees to contribute more to the organization (Grant & Gino, 2010). When employees feel appreciated, they feel stronger feelings of competence and social worth, which may motivate them to perform prosocial behaviors like deciding to volunteer more or putting more effort into their roles and responsibilities.
Additionally, gratitude can also enhance psychological security at work (Edmondson, 2002). When employees feel psychologically safe, they may be more inclined to express their own ideas which can lead to enhanced creativity and innovation for the organization.
Time to say thanks!
If you’re looking to practice more gratitude in your daily life either at home or at work, psychologist Martin Seligman has come up with an exercise called “The Three Good Things (Three Blessings)”. In short, one should:
Think of and write down three good things that have happened
Reflect on why they happened
So, take some time out of your day to simply say thank your family and your team at work. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture; as long as it is backed with authenticity, your family and teams can reap the benefits of gratitude.
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If you’re interested in learning more about how you can apply behavioral science to your own life and work, reach out to us at Namika.Sagara@BeSciGroup.com!