1 Department of Psychology, Northeastern University.
2 Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.
Psychol Sci. 2019 Jul;30(7):979-988. doi: 10.1177/0956797619848351. Epub 2019 May 30.
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 ( = 156) and a more anonymous online setting ( = 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.
感恩与涉及资源交换的行为有关；它激励人们回报恩人。然而，鉴于感恩与自我控制有关——自我控制是偿还债务的必要因素——感恩可能会增强与交换无关的其他美德的可能性，而这些美德取决于抵制诱惑的能力。在这里，我们通过关注感恩减少欺骗的能力，来研究感恩作为一种“父母”美德的能力。我们使用基于实时行为的欺骗衡量标准，在控制的实验室环境（n=156）和更匿名的在线环境（n=141）中都证明了感恩，与中性和更普遍的积极情绪状态幸福相比，减少了欺骗行为。这一发现表明，并非所有道德品质都需要孤立地进行研究，而是存在等级制度，其中某些美德可能会产生看似无关的其他美德。
