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Death and Gratitude: Death Reflection Enhances Gratitude Araceli Friasa, Philip C

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Death and Gratitude: Death Reflection Enhances Gratitude Araceli Friasa, Philip C The Journal of Positive Psychology Vol. 6, No. 2, March 2011, 154–162 Death and gratitude: Death reflection enhances gratitude Araceli Friasa, Philip C. Watkinsa*, Amy C. Webbera and Jeffrey J. Frohb aDepartment of Psychology, Eastern Washington University, 151 Martin Hall, Cheney 99003, WA, USA; bDepartment of Psychology, Hofstra University, 210 Houser Hall, Hempstead 11549, NY, USA (Received 18 May 2010; final version received 2 December 2010) Although gratitude is important to the good life, little is known about factors that enhance gratitude. Some have suggested that traumatic events such as near-death experiences and life-threatening illnesses might enhance gratitude. If reflecting on death causes one to appreciate life as a limited resource, this might enhance gratitude. This study investigated this theory. Participants were randomly assigned to a death reflection condition, a traditional mortality salience condition, or to a control condition. Participants in the death reflection and the mortality salience conditions showed enhanced gratitude compared to individuals in the control condition, supporting the theory that becoming aware of one’s mortal limitations enhances gratitude for the life that what one has. Keywords: gratitude; death reflection; death; mortality salience Introduction one’s own mortality, this could enhance one’s aware- ness that their life ‘might not be’, and hence might The truth is that all genuine appreciation rests on a become more grateful for the life they have. Do people certain mystery of humility and almost darkness. The man who said, ‘Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, become more grateful when they are reflecting on their for he shall not be disappointed’, put the eulogy quite own death? The purpose of this study was to investi- inadequately and even falsely. The truth is, ‘Blessed is gate this question. he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously Research has converged to support the conclusion surprised’. The man who expects nothing sees redder that gratitude is an important component of the good roses than common men can see, and greener grass, life. Trait gratitude measures are strongly correlated and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expecteth with various measures of subjective well-being (e.g., nothing, for he shall posses the cities and the moun- tains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inherit the earth. McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002; Watkins, Until we realize that things might not be, we cannot Woodward, Stone, & Kolts, 2003b; Wood, Joseph, & realize that things are. Until we see that darkness we Maltby, 2008), longitudinal studies have found that cannot admire the light as a single and created thing. gratitude predicts increased well-being over time, and As soon as we have seen that darkness, all light is gratitude is one of the strongest predictors of happiness lightening, sudden, blinding, and divine. ...It is one of amongst the strengths identified by the Values In the million wild jests of truth that we know nothing Action project (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004; until we know nothing. Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Furthermore, experimen- Downloaded by [University of California, Berkeley] at 11:19 21 July 2011 –Chesterton (1905/1986a, p. 69, italics added). tal studies have provided promising evidence that How do grateful people become grateful? How gratitude exercises may actually enhance immediate does gratitude develop in a person? In the epigraph, mood state (Watkins et al., 2003b), and long-term Chesterton suggests that when one recognizes ‘that subjective well-being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; things might not be’ she develops a deep appreciation Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008; Lyubomirsky, for these things. Thus, one important component of Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; Seligman, Steen, Park, & the grateful person may be that they understand that Peterson, 2005, for a review, see Watkins, Van Gelder, the benefits they enjoy now ‘might not be’. Perhaps & Frias, 2009). Thus, not only is there a strong when individuals become aware that life is a benefit tendency for grateful individuals to be happy, but now that is not a given, they then gain an appreciation and there also appears to be some evidence that gratitude gratitude for the life that they have. By reflecting on causes enhanced subjective well-being. *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ISSN 1743–9760 print/ISSN 1743–9779 online ß 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2011.558848 http://www.informaworld.com The Journal of Positive Psychology 155 While there appear to be a number of benefits to that their appreciation for life itself has increased (e.g., gratitude, to date there is little evidence that speaks to Taylor, 1983), and others have noted that very grateful the question of how gratitude develops in a person. people have often gone through very difficult – if not What makes a grateful person grateful? Although this life threatening – circumstances (e.g., Emmons, 2007). would appear to be an important question, few These studies rely on retrospective anecdotal reports, studies have set out to investigate this issue. Several and thus experimental designs are needed to test these possible gratitude development mechanisms seem ideas more carefully. Furthermore, in the appreciation plausible. First, a secure attachment base may be scale developed by Adler and Fagley (2005), one of critical for the development of gratitude (Lystad, their items (‘thinking about dying reminds me to live Watkins, & Sizemore, 2005). In a related vein, it each day to its fullest’, p. 94) clearly suggests that this would seem to follow that early emotional training may be an important element of appreciation and would be important to the development of gratitude. gratitude. Indeed, we have argued that trait gratitude is Children exposed to caregivers who model and characterized by the attitude that all of life is a gift reinforce grateful responding would seem to be at (Watkins et al., 2003b). Perhaps when an individual an advantage in the development of gratitude. endures a life-threatening experience, this decreases Likewise, parents who teach their children to appre- the tendency to take life for granted and thus ciate simple pleasures rather than seeking spectacular increases one’s awareness that life itself is a gift to be pleasures should be more likely to enhance gratitude thankful for. In this study, we sought to test this in their children. Indeed, the appreciation of simple theory by enhancing awareness of one’s own death pleasures does appear to be an important factor of in the lab. trait gratitude (Watkins et al., 2003b). Furthermore, Two methods have emerged for increasing in an experimental design, we found that the appre- participants’ awareness of their mortality in research ciation of natural beauty (a simple pleasure) enhances settings: mortality salience and death reflection. In state gratitude (Watkins, Gibler, Mathews, & Kolts, mortality salience manipulations, some subjects are 2005). Spiritual development may also be important exposed to some aspect of death, and simply writing to the development of trait gratitude. Some evidence about one’s own death seems to be the most commonly exists in support of this notion in that actively used method (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, religious/spiritual individuals are more likely to be Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989). Mortality salience induc- grateful (Emmons & Kneezel, 2005; McCullough tions have been shown to produce a number of et al., 2002; Watkins et al., 2003b). More generally, unsavory results: increased greed, racism, and ethno- the development of prosocial traits such as trust and centrism (Koole, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski, 2006). agreeableness, should provide an important founda- Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, tion for building the trait of gratitude. Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997) has provided a com- While all of these putative avenues to gratitude pelling account of these rather diverse effects. TMT deserve empirical attention, we chose to focus on argues that when one is indirectly confronted with their another potential route: exposure to difficult circum- own mortality, the individual engages in defenses to stances. In particular, we focused on how life- enhance their personal value and so to enhance their threatening circumstances might enhance gratitude. ‘symbolic mortality’. Mortality salience effects, how- Because of the emotional law of habituation (Frijda, ever, seem to be in direct contrast to research on post- 1988, 2007), we tend to become accustomed to bene- traumatic growth (where often the individual has been Downloaded by [University of California, Berkeley] at 11:19 21 July 2011 ficial situations that are relatively unchanging. confronted with their own mortality, Calhoun & Certainly, life itself is one of those benefits that we Tedeschi, 2001) and to our proposal that becoming enjoy constantly (at least while we are alive), and thus more aware of one’s own mortality should enhance we often fail to notice the basic advantages of life and gratitude. Recently, however, another mortality sal- may even take this benefit for granted. When one is ience manipulation has appeared in the literature called confronted, however, with a situation where their life is ‘death reflection’ (Cozzolino, 2006; Cozzolino, Staples, in jeopardy, appreciation for this benefit may result Meyers, & Samboceti, 2004). In this induction, partic- because they have become more aware of what ‘might ipants are asked to imagine their own death in a very not be’ – which in this case is life itself. Here, we follow specific and vivid manner (dying in a house fire). This the approach of Janoff-Bulman and Berger (2000), manipulation was designed to emulate the core features who argued that appreciation is simply the cognitive of near-death experiences (Ring & Valarino, 1998). In process of appraising something with increased value. contrast to conventional mortality salience manipula- Just as real estate may ‘appreciate’ in monetary value, tions, death reflection appears to produce salubrious so one’s appreciation for life may increase when results, such as increased intrinsic behavior and less confronted with their death.
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