Cited by 1,698Emotions and Moral BehaviorPsychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionPsychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

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Is gratitude a moral affect?

McCullough, Michael E., Kilpatrick, Shelley D., Emmons, Robert A., Larson, David B.·2001·Psychological Bulletin

DOI 10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249

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Abstract

Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.

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“Finally, gratitude is strongly and consistently related to psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction (Emmons and McCullough 2003, McCullough et al. 2001; Wood et al. 2010), even longitudinally after controlling for the Big Five personality traits (Wood et al. 2008, 2009).”
Background
The Reciprocal Relationship Between Gratitude and Life Satisfaction: Evidence From Two Longitudinal Field Studies
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Perceived luxurious values and pay a price premium for Michelin-starred restaurants: A sequential mediation model with self-expansion and customer gratitude
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“Gratitude plays a crucial role in social and moral life (McCullough et al. 2001; Harpham, 2004; McCullough and Tsang, 2004; Leithart, 2014; Kristjánsson, 2015; Manela, 2015) and is regarded as a typical social-moral emotion (Haidt, 2003; Algoe and Haidt, 2009).”
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Autonomic nervous system activity during positive emotions: a meta-analytic review
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“Gratitude Emotional response to an unexpected altruistic act of kindness and compassion (Ekman & Cordaro, 2011; McCullough et al., 2001).”
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Cultivating gratitude and giving through experiential consumption.
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“…focused on what might be called “targeted” gratitude—the sense of appreciation and indebtedness one feels when one receives a specific benefit (or benefits) from a particular person (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; DeSteno et al., 2010; Emmons & McCullough, 2004; McCullough et al., 2001; Tsang, 2006).”
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Satisfaction or gratitude? Exploring the disparate effects of physicians' knowledge sharing on patients' service evaluation in online medical consultations
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“…as a cumulative evaluation of a customer's overall consumption experiences with a product or service (Garbarino & Johnson, 1999), while gratitude is defined as the positive emotion that individuals feel when others have intentionally improved their well-being (McCullough et al., 2001, 2004).”
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Balance Among Character Strengths and Meaning in Life
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“The feeling and expression of gratitude as a response to others’ help/gift is a common feature of human sociality and a basic moral principle in many cultures (Mauss, 1950/2002; McConnell, 1993; McCullough et al., 2001).”
Influential
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“(2012) and McCullough et al. (2004) to measure positive affect, negative affect, and meaningful affect.”
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“First, gratitude is conceptualized as the positive emotion evoked by one party when the other party provides extra favors or benefits (McCullough et al., 2001; McCullough and Tsang, 2004).”
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“The beneficent effect of gratitude on well-being has interested psychologists for some time (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001 ).”
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Mediating effects of loneliness on the gratitude-health link
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“People who feel more gratitude in life are more generally appreciative of the positive in the self and world (Wood, Maltby, Stewart, & Joseph, 2008) as well as the future (McCullough et al., 2001).”
BackgroundSelf-citation
How emotions, relationships, and culture constitute each other: advances in social functionalist theory
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“These emotion-speci ﬁ c shifts in cognition alter the likelihoods of actions such as soothing, collaboration, derogation, forgiveness, punishment, and sacri ﬁ ce (Carlsmith et al., 2002; McCullough, 2000; McCullough et al., 2001; Pi ﬀ et al., 2015).”
Gratitude Moderates the Mediating Effect of Deliberate Rumination on the Relationship Between Intrusive Rumination and Post-traumatic Growth
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Who self-initiates gratitude interventions in daily life? An examination of intentions, curiosity, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction
Kaczmarek, L. D., Kashdan, T. B., Kleiman, E. M., Bączkowski, B. M., Enko, J., Siebers, A., Szäefer, A., Król, M., & Baran, B. (2013) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.06.013 · Cited by 51

Authors: McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D. B.
Affiliations: Southern Methodist University (US)
University of California, Davis (US)
ORCID: McCullough, Michael E.
Larson, David B.
Venue: Psychological Bulletin
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 2001-03
Volume: 127
Issue: 2
Pages: 249-266
ISSN: 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
1939-1455
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249
OpenAlex: W2014281368
Cited by: 1,698
References: 143
Citations by year: 2026: 76 · 2025: 123 · 2024: 103 · 2023: 117 · 2022: 137 · 2021: 131 · 2020: 125 · 2019: 105 · 2018: 72 · 2017: 82 · 2016: 92 · 2015: 92 · 2014: 90 · 2013: 69 · 2012: 48
FWCI: 15.38
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Keywords: gratitude, moral emotions, prosocial behavior, empathy, guilt, moral cognition, personality factors
MeSH terms: Affect, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Models, Psychological, Morals, Motivation, Social Behavior

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