Feeling Grateful for the Benefits of Life, No Matter the Source

Sometimes people feel interpersonal gratitude toward other people and other times feel impersonally grateful toward non-human sources of benefits, enjoyed over time. Scant work has explored the processes associated with gratitude that people feel for benefits, which have no apparent human source, and are enjoyed continuously over time. The present study offers an initial treatment of impersonal gratitude. Across one pilot test and four studies, N = 1459 total participants were sampled. Study 1 demonstrates prompts highlighting water’s value increase gratitude for water. Study 2 investigates how reminders of the uncertainty of a benefit might reduce taking that benefit for granted. Study 2 showed that those who received information about the uncertainty of water resources were more grateful when covariation in trait level gratitude was controlled. Study 3 replicates the effect of certainty on gratitude, showing those who read about the low certainty of water were more grateful for water than those who read about the high certainty of water. Furthermore study 3 showed that gratitude for water predicts behaviors aimed at protecting water resources. Finally, study 4 examines the mechanisms that may link certainty to gratitude, showing that certain resources are more valued and appreciated, but that certain resources are also used more habitually, and that such habituation can also diminish gratitude. Overall, the present study expands theory and research concerning gratitude by investigating an understudied context for gratitude and suggesting that gratitude may serve general adaptive purposes, by responding to the value or uncertainty of a resource and encouraging behavior to protect such important or threatened resources.

人们有时会对他人产生人际性感激（interpersonal gratitude），有时则会对非人类来源的益处产生非人际性感激（impersonal gratitude），且这种情感体验会持续一段时间。目前鲜有研究探讨人们针对无明确人类来源、且长期享有的益处所产生的感激之情的内在心理过程。本研究首次对非人际性感激展开系统性探讨，共开展1项预实验与4项正式实验，累计招募1459名被试。实验1证实，凸显水资源价值的提示能够提升个体对水资源的感激程度。实验2探究了益处不确定性提示如何缓解个体对该益处的理所当然心态，研究结果显示，在控制特质性感激（trait gratitude）水平作为协变量后，接收到水资源不确定性信息的被试对水资源的感激程度更高。实验3重复验证了资源确定性对感激程度的影响效应：相较于阅读水资源高确定性信息的被试，阅读水资源低确定性信息的被试对水资源的感激程度显著更高。此外，实验3还发现，个体对水资源的感激程度能够正向预测其保护水资源的行为意向。最后，实验4探究了资源确定性与感激程度之间的潜在作用机制，结果表明：确定性更高的资源会被个体赋予更高的价值并获得更多欣赏，但同时也会被更习惯性地使用，而这种习惯化过程同样会削弱个体的感激之情。总体而言，本研究通过探索此前鲜有涉足的感激情境，拓展了有关感激的理论与研究范畴；同时提出，感激可通过响应资源的价值或不确定性、并促使个体采取行动保护重要或受威胁的资源，发挥一般性的适应功能。