Gratitude Practices: What the Research Does and Doesn't Show

Gratitude practice is one of the most popular happiness habits around. Write down three things you're thankful for, the advice goes, and you'll feel happier. There is real research behind the idea. There is also a lot of overstatement.

This guide explains what gratitude practices are, describes the studies that made them popular, and summarizes what large reviews have found, including the limits. The short version: large reviews find that gratitude exercises tend to produce small but real improvements in well-being across studies, but they are not a cure for anything, and they are worth approaching in a way that feels genuine rather than forced.

What Counts as a Gratitude Practice

In a 2010 review in Clinical Psychology Review, Wood, Froh and Geraghty described gratitude as including not only the thankfulness we feel after someone helps us, but also a broader habit of noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of life.

Gratitude exercises try to strengthen that habit. A large 2025 meta-analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by Choi and colleagues, grouped the exercises studied into several types:

• Counting blessings, such as listing things you are grateful for in a journal.
• Remembering, such as recalling a past experience you are thankful for.
• Expressing gratitude, such as writing a letter of thanks to someone.
• Counterfactual thinking, such as imagining your life without something good in it.
• Psychoeducation, or learning about gratitude, and mixed programs that combine several approaches.

The Studies That Started It

According to the Choi review, research on whether gratitude promotes happiness traces back to two projects. In a 2003 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Emmons and McCullough reported three studies. In the first two, people were randomly assigned to keep weekly or daily records focused on things they were grateful for, on hassles, or on neutral events or comparisons with others. In the third, people with neuromuscular disease were randomly assigned to a gratitude condition or a control condition. The gratitude groups showed higher well-being on several, though not all, of the measures, and the effect on positive affect, or positive mood, appeared to be the most robust finding.

In 2005, Seligman and colleagues published an internet study in American Psychologist that tested five proposed happiness exercises against a control exercise. One asked people to write a letter to someone they were grateful to and then visit them. The researchers reported that three of the five exercises lastingly increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms.

These studies were influential, but they were early, and later researchers asked an important question: compared with what?

What the Bigger Reviews Found

When many studies are pooled, the picture is more modest.

• A 2016 meta-analysis in the Journal of Counseling Psychology by Davis and colleagues found that gratitude interventions beat a measurement-only control on psychological well-being, with a small effect, and beat other comparison activities by a smaller margin. Against psychologically active comparison activities, they performed as well as, but not better than, the alternatives.
• A 2021 meta-analysis in the Journal of Happiness Studies by David Cregg and Jennifer Cheavens, covering 27 studies and 3,675 participants, found that gratitude interventions had a small effect on symptoms of depression and anxiety. Effects were larger when studies used wait-list controls rather than active ones. The authors concluded that the effects are relatively modest and recommended that people seeking to reduce depression or anxiety use approaches with stronger evidence for those symptoms.
• The 2025 PNAS meta-analysis by Choi and colleagues pooled 145 papers with 24,804 participants from 28 countries. Gratitude interventions led to small overall increases in well-being. Effects were largest for positive emotions and smaller for reducing negative emotions, and they varied significantly between countries. The authors also found the results appeared robust against publication bias.

Why "Compared With What?" Matters

The Choi review shows how much the comparison group shapes the result. Gratitude exercises looked much stronger when compared with negatively valenced activities, such as counting misfortunes, than when compared with neutral activities, such as listing daily events. A study that compares gratitude with dwelling on problems can make gratitude look more powerful than it is.

Other limits are worth keeping in mind:

• Most outcomes are self-reported moods and ratings, which can be shaped by expectations.
• Averages hide individual differences. Choi and colleagues caution against generalizing their findings to individuals.
• Culture matters. In a sub-analysis of Asian participants, most types of exercise still helped, but expressing gratitude to others, such as by writing a letter, did not show a statistically significant effect. The authors point to earlier research suggesting that thanking someone can also stir up feelings of indebtedness or guilt in some cultural contexts.
• More is not clearly better. Across studies, the number of sessions assigned did not change how well gratitude interventions worked. The authors suggest that participating voluntarily, for a length of time that suits the person, may matter more than a long program.

How to Try It Well

If you want to experiment, a few approaches draw directly on the kinds of exercises studied:

1. A gratitude list. Once or a few times a week, write down a handful of specific things you appreciated. Try specific details, such as "My neighbor helped me carry groceries," rather than repeating general ones like "my health" every time.
2. A gratitude letter. Write to someone who made a difference to you. You can deliver it, read it aloud, or simply keep it. If thanking someone feels uncomfortable or creates a sense of debt, the other approaches may suit you better.
3. Mental subtraction. Picture a good thing in your life and imagine how things would be without it.
4. Mix it up. The Choi review found larger effects for programs that combined several types of gratitude exercises.

Try to keep the practice honest. Gratitude is not the same as pretending everything is fine. You can appreciate a friend's kindness and still be frustrated by a hard situation, and gratitude is not meant to silence real problems. If an exercise starts to feel like a chore or a guilt trip, change it or take a break.

When to Seek More Support

Gratitude practices are a well-being habit, not a treatment. Given the small effects on depression and anxiety in the research, they should not replace professional care. If low mood, worry or stress is affecting your daily life, talk with a licensed mental health professional or your doctor. If you are in crisis in the US, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a related reflective habit, see our guide Journaling and Self-Reflection: Methods, Prompts and Research.

Key takeaways

• Gratitude practices include listing, remembering, expressing thanks and imagining life without good things.
• Early studies were promising; large meta-analyses find small average improvements in well-being, especially positive emotions.
• Effects shrink against active comparison activities and vary across individuals and cultures.
• More sessions do not clearly mean more benefit; voluntary, genuine practice may matter more.
• Gratitude exercises are not a substitute for professional care for depression or anxiety.

Sources

• Emmons and McCullough, Counting Blessings Versus Burdens, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2003), PubMed record
• Seligman and colleagues, Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions, American Psychologist (2005), PubMed record
• Wood, Froh and Geraghty, Gratitude and Well-Being: A Review and Theoretical Integration, Clinical Psychology Review (2010), PubMed record
• Davis and colleagues, Thankful for the Little Things: A Meta-Analysis of Gratitude Interventions, Journal of Counseling Psychology (2016), PubMed record
• Cregg and Cheavens, Gratitude Interventions: Effective Self-Help? A Meta-Analysis of the Impact on Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety, Journal of Happiness Studies (2021)
• Choi and colleagues, A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions on Well-Being Across Cultures, PNAS (2025)
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline