2001/03/01 by Michael E. McCullough, Shelley D. Kilpatrick, Shelley Dean Kilpatrick +2 · 1,521 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Affect (linguistics) #Conceptualization #Emotions and Moral Behavior #Empathy #Function (biology) #Gratitude #Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies #Moral development #Moral disengagement #Moral psychology #Moral reasoning #Personality #Prosocial behavior #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social cognitive theory of morality #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249
published in Psychological Bulletin 127(2), 249-266 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2001/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.