An Upward Spiral Between Gratitude and Humility
Abstract
In two experiments and one diary study, we examined the relationship between self- and other-oriented processes by considering how gratitude can influence humility and vice versa. Humility is characterized by low self-focus, secure sense of self, and increased valuation of others. Gratitude is marked by a sense that one has benefited from the actions of another. In the first experiment, participants who wrote a gratitude letter showed higher state humility than those who performed a neutral activity. In the second experiment, baseline state humility predicted the amount of gratitude felt after writing a gratitude letter compared to a neutral activity. Finally, in a 14-day diary study, humility and gratitude mutually predicted one another, even after controlling for the other’s prior level. Our results suggest that humility and gratitude are mutually reinforcing.
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Biographies
Elliott Kruse (PhD UC Riverside) is a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He is interested in the processes through which appraisal of the self, others, and the world lead to substantively different affect and behavior.
Joseph Chancellor (PhD UC Riverside) is currently a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in “self-less” and other-oriented paths to increasing well-being.
Peter M. Ruberton (BS Truman State University) is a PhD student at the University of California, Riverside. He is interested in how other-focused processes (such as humility) relate to how individuals attribute life events both in their own lives and in the lives of others.
Sonja Lyubomirsky (PhD Stanford University) is a professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and author of The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness. She investigates why some people are happier than others, the benefits of happiness, and how to sustainably increase happiness.
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Article first published online: May 30, 2014
Issue published: September 2014
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