Cultural context shapes the effectiveness of gratitude practices across countries

Counting one's blessings, journaling, saying a prayer, or writing a letter of appreciation are all forms of gratitude practice that are widely seen as improving outlook, increasing life satisfaction, and potentially strengthening social bonds. Yet despite how common such practices are across the world and throughout history, their effects as formal interventions are not uniform.

A multinational megastudy published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that the effects of gratitude interventions differ across 34 countries and cultures, as well as by the type of practice used.

The study was led by Professor Nicholas Coles at the University of Florida and Professor Michael McCullough at UC San Diego, with UC Santa Barbara social psychologist Hongbo Yu among the collaborators. Yu said the research had two central aims: to systematically examine and compare different gratitude interventions, and to develop a fuller understanding of how culture shapes their effectiveness.

Why cultural context matters

Researchers have long recognised the role of gratitude in social and personal wellbeing, and various peoples throughout history have incorporated such practices into their daily and communal lives. In the contemporary world, gratitude is widely promoted as a strategy for improving both mental health and broader social wellbeing. However, Yu noted that no study had closely compared the relative effectiveness of different gratitude interventions, nor examined how cultural context affects their outcomes.

"Most of the studies tested only one intervention," Yu said, meaning there were no systematic comparisons across different methods. Counting one's blessings and journaling were among the most common practices studied, but it was not established whether one was more effective than the other, nor how either compared to other interventions such as writing a gratitude letter. Furthermore, a large share of existing research was conducted in the United States, raising questions about how applicable those findings are elsewhere. "So we didn't really know whether gratitude interventions were effective in other cultures, because different cultures may see help and gratitude differently for their own reasons," Yu said.

Study design and measures

To address these gaps, the international research team recruited 10,696 participants across 34 countries. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of six gratitude practices or one of three control tasks, and then completed a set of questionnaires to assess their subjective outcomes. "Ideally, we want the interventions to make us feel more positive," Yu said. "We also want to see a reduction in negative feeling."

The six gratitude practices were: a gratitude text message, a gratitude letter, Naikan reflection (a structured, introspective approach intended to guide a person toward gratitude), divine gratitude, mental subtraction (imagining life without something one is grateful for), and a gratitude list — that is, counting one's blessings. Following the assigned practice, participants responded to questionnaires measuring six outcomes: positive affect, negative affect, optimism, life satisfaction, envy, and feelings of indebtedness.