a Department of Social Psychology , Tilburg University , Tilburg , The Netherlands.
b Department of Marketing , Vrije Universiteit , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
Cogn Emot. 2018 Jun;32(4):760-772. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2017.1353484. Epub 2017 Jul 18.
Receiving favors is often a mixed blessing and commonly triggers two emotions: the positive emotion gratitude and negative emotion indebtedness. In three studies, we examined the hypothesis that gratitude and indebtedness have distinct functions in social exchange. Contrary to current views, we believe that the function of gratitude does not primarily reside in facilitating social exchange. Instead, we propose that indebtedness motivates people to repay favours received, and thus accounts for most of the prosocial effects commonly attributed to gratitude. On the other hand consistent with current views, we believe that gratitude signals the potential for developing a relationship and fosters proximity seeking. Supporting these assumptions, in Study 1 we found that gratitude and indebtedness were associated with aspects of the favour that reflect the concern for relationship and the level of inequity. Studies 2 and 3 provided causal support for these relations, and revealed the unique associations between gratitude and the motivation of proximity seeking, and between indebtedness and the motivation to reciprocate. We argue that this functional distinction has escaped research attention as gratitude and indebtedness are naturally correlated because they stem from the same eliciting event. To appreciate this functional distinction, both emotions should be studied simultaneously in the context of social exchange.
接受恩惠常常是一件好坏参半的事情，通常会引发两种情绪：积极的感激之情和消极的负债感。在三项研究中，我们检验了这样一个假设，即感激之情和负债感在社会交换中具有不同的功能。与当前的观点相反，我们认为感激之情的主要功能不在于促进社会交换。相反，我们认为负债感促使人们回报所收到的恩惠，从而解释了通常归因于感激之情的大部分亲社会效应。另一方面，与当前的观点一致，我们认为感激之情表明了发展关系的潜力，并促进了亲近的寻求。研究 1 支持了这些假设，发现感激之情和负债感与反映关系关注和不公平程度的恩惠方面有关。研究 2 和 3 为这些关系提供了因果支持，并揭示了感激之情与亲近寻求动机之间以及负债感与回报动机之间的独特关联。我们认为，这种功能上的区别之所以没有引起研究的关注，是因为感激之情和负债感是自然相关的，因为它们源于同一引发事件。为了理解这种功能区别，应该在社会交换的背景下同时研究这两种情绪。
