Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago.
Psychol Sci. 2018 Sep;29(9):1423-1435. doi: 10.1177/0956797618772506. Epub 2018 Jun 27.
Expressing gratitude improves well-being for both expressers and recipients, but we suggest that an egocentric bias may lead expressers to systematically undervalue its positive impact on recipients in a way that could keep people from expressing gratitude more often in everyday life. Participants in three experiments wrote gratitude letters and then predicted how surprised, happy, and awkward recipients would feel. Recipients then reported how receiving an expression of gratitude actually made them feel. Expressers significantly underestimated how surprised recipients would be about why expressers were grateful, overestimated how awkward recipients would feel, and underestimated how positive recipients would feel. Expected awkwardness and mood were both correlated with participants' willingness to express gratitude. Wise decisions are guided by an accurate assessment of the expected value of action. Underestimating the value of prosocial actions, such as expressing gratitude, may keep people from engaging in behavior that would maximize their own-and others'-well-being.
表达感激之情可以同时提高表达者和接受者的幸福感，但我们认为，自我中心偏见可能导致表达者系统地低估其对接受者的积极影响，从而使人们在日常生活中不愿更频繁地表达感激之情。在三个实验中，参与者写了感谢信，然后预测接受者会感到多么惊讶、高兴和尴尬。然后，接受者报告了他们实际收到感激之情时的感受。表达者明显低估了接受者对表达者感激的原因感到惊讶的程度，高估了接受者感到尴尬的程度，并且低估了接受者感到积极的程度。预期的尴尬和情绪都与参与者表达感激的意愿相关。明智的决策是由对行动预期价值的准确评估所引导的。低估表达感激等亲社会行为的价值，可能会使人们无法采取最能增进自己和他人幸福感的行为。
