Gratitude has been linked to behaviors involving the exchange of resources; it motivates people to repay debts to benefactors. However, given its links to self-control—itself a necessary factor for repaying debts—the possibility arises that gratitude might enhance other virtues unrelated to exchange that depend on an ability to resist temptation. Here, we examined gratitude’s ability to function as a “parent” virtue by focusing on its ability to reduce cheating. Using real-time behavior-based measures of cheating, we demonstrated that gratitude, as opposed to neutrality and the more general positive emotional state of happiness, reduces cheating in both a controlled laboratory setting ( N = 156) and a more anonymous online setting ( N = 141). This finding suggests that not all moral qualities need to be studied in silos but, rather, that hierarchies exist wherein certain virtues might give rise to seemingly unrelated others.

Sustaining finite public resources presents a dilemma between acting in self-interest for present benefit versus working toward long-term collective gain. Given gratitude’s links to prosociality and self-control, the present studies investigated whether gratitude would promote sustainable resource extraction under conditions of rapidly depleting resources. In Study 1 (N = 155), participants were randomly assigned to experience an emotional state (gratitude or neutral) prior to playing a resource dilemma game in which the common pool was manipulated to indicate either a sustained or depleting resource status. Neutral participants increased their point taking when the pool was depleting compared with when it was sustained; however, this pattern was not observed for grateful participants. Study 2 (N = 224) replicated these findings while also showing the effect of gratitude to be distinct from happiness. These findings show that gratitude, as opposed to a general positive emotional state, buffers against overtaking in resource dilemmas and suggests that this emotion may be useful in promoting sustainable behavior.

Gratitude has been linked to behaviors involving the exchange of resources. As such, it motivates people to repay debts to benefactors. However, given its links to self-control – itself a necessary factor for repaying debts – the possibility arises that gratitude might enhance other virtues unrelated to exchange that depend on an ability to resist temptation. Here, we provide an examination of gratitude’s ability to function as a “parent” virtue by focusing on its ability to reduce cheating. Using real-time behavior-based measures of cheating, we demonstrate that gratitude, as opposed to neutrality and the more general positive emotional state of happiness, reduces cheating both in a controlled laboratory setting (N = 156) and a more anonymous online setting (N = 141). This finding suggests that not all moral qualities need not be studied in silos, but rather that hierarchies exist wherein certain virtues might give rise to seemingly unrelated others.

Sustaining finite public resources presents a dilemma between acting in self-interest for present benefit versus working toward long-term collective gain. Given gratitude’s links to prosociality and self-control, the present studies investigated whether gratitude would promote sustainable resource extraction under conditions of rapidly depleting resources. In Study 1 (N=155), participants were randomly assigned to experience an emotional state (gratitude or neutral) prior to playing a resource dilemma game where the common pool was manipulated to indicate either a sustained or depleting resource status. Neutral participants increased their point taking when the pool was depleting compared to when it was sustained, however this pattern was not observed for grateful participants. Study 2 (N=224) replicated these findings while also showing the effect of gratitude to be distinct from happiness. These findings show that gratitude, as opposed to a general positive emotional state, buffers against overtaking in resource dilemmas, and suggests that this emotion may be useful in promoting sustainable behavior.