Putting the "You" in "Thank You": Examining Other-Praising Behavior as the Active Relational Ingredient in Expressed Gratitude.

ABSTRACT: Although positive emotions as a class can build interpersonal resources, recent evidence suggests a unique and direct role for gratitude. In the current research, we shine the spotlight on what happens between a grateful person and the benefactor to illuminate what can build a bridge between them. Specifically, we draw on work calling gratitude an "other-praising" emotion. In an original study and a conceptual replication that included two independent samples, couples had video-recorded conversations in which one member expressed gratitude to the other (n = 370). Expresser's other-praising behavior was robustly positively associated with the benefactor's postinteraction perception of expresser responsiveness, personal good feelings in general, and felt loving in particular. Several

SUBMITTER: Algoe SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4988174 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature