From the Havard-Baylor human flourishing project- MDB

 

From: VanderWeele, Tyler J. <tvanderw@hsph.harvard.edu>
Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 10:25 AM
To: Burke, Mack <Mack_Burke@baylor.edu>
Subject: Gratitude

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This research update discusses how gratitude not only affects well-being (as has been shown before) but also seems to extend life expectancy.

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Research Update: August 2024

 

Dear Friends,

This research update from the Human Flourishing Program discusses our new research on how gratitude not only affects well-being (as has been shown before) but in fact also seems to extend life expectancy. We also announce an open search for our new Executive Director position at the Program and welcome applications.

 

Gratitude

 

In spite of much around us that is difficult, undesirable, or challenging, there is also a great deal in our lives that is good, that we can appreciate, and celebrate. The practice of gratitude involves seeing the good in things around us. When we fix our attention on these positive aspects of life, acknowledge that they are good, and realize that, in many cases, we are not their source, we can experience gratitude. We may be grateful to someone who has helped us, or who has given us something, or who has somehow brought about what is good. We may be grateful for the opportunities we have been given, that allow us to act to bring about something good. We may be grateful for the intrinsic goodness of nature, or of what surrounds us. We may be grateful to God for the goodness of creation. All of these various forms of gratitude involve a recognition of what is good.

 

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Gratitude and Well-Being

 

Past research has indicated important effects of gratitude on enhancing well-being. And simple easy-to-use interventions have been developed to increase gratitude in life, and thereby well-being. One might, for instance, try writing down three things one is grateful for three times a week over the course of a month or two, or even longer. Evidence from numerous randomized trials (summarized in this meta-analysis) suggests that such simple activities of focusing the mind on what is good in one’s past or present can help increase happiness, relieve symptoms of depression, and perhaps even improve sleep. There are of course numerous other variations on this exercise of expressing gratitude, but study after study has suggested positive effects of gratitude on enhancing well-being, and it is for this reason that we’ve promoted such gratitude exercises previously among helpful activities for flourishing and have included them among the activities in our flourishing app. While studies have indicated beneficial effects of gratitude on numerous outcomes, no one has previously examined the effects of gratitude on longevity… but that is effectively what we did in our most recent study…

 

Gratitude and Mortality

 

In a paper just recently published in JAMA Psychiatry, we used data on over 49,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and followed them up over four years after the initial gratitude assessment to examine mortality risk of those with high versus low levels of gratitude. Certainly objective circumstances, like baseline health, might affect both gratitude and subsequent mortality risk and so we controlled for a host of baseline health measures. And we controlled also for numerous other social, demographic, economic, health behavior, and psychological variables as well, including other aspects of psychological well-being such as depressive symptoms and optimism. Such rigorous control, with longitudinal data over time, is needed if we want to have any hope of making causal inferences. In spite of such rigorous control, we found that those with high levels of gratitude were 9% less likely to die over the four years of follow-up than those with low-levels of gratitude… and more specifically the high gratitude group was 15% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease. While the mortality reduction is not huge, it is meaningful; and while the effect of gratitude may be somewhat smaller than what one finds with optimism say, these effects of gratitude are present above and beyond the potential protective effects of optimism (for which control was made).

 

Implications

 

The effects on mortality risk, and also on well-being, are also important because anyone can practice gratitude. It can be hard to change optimism in any straightforward manner, and indeed some of the interventions that have tried to bring about such changes have failed. However, once again, anyone can practice gratitude. Anyone can recognize what is good around them. And, as noted above, there are interventions that we know work to increase gratitude, and to increase well-being… and our study suggests that such practices could help reduce mortality risk as well. Given the effects of gratitude interventions on well-being and on health, this information and these gratitude exercises could be widely disseminated in schools, in workplaces, in neighborhoods and communities. In each of these settings, it may be possible to run mini-gratitude campaigns, discussing the results of such research, providing examples of gratitude exercises, and perhaps even taking some time out of the day -in a school, or at a workplace- to practice gratitude together. In my family, we take time during family dinners to express what we are grateful and find it very helpful. In day-to-day life, such gratitude practices recognize the good around us, help us to be grateful for one another, contribute to our well-being, and bring life.

 

Gratitude for Those at the Human Flourishing Program

 

On a more personal note, I would like to express gratitude and appreciation for several people on the Human Flourishing Program research staff who have recently made the decision to move on to a new position. I would in fact like to express gratitude for the whole of the Program staff (and to the Institute for Quantitative Social Science staff who host us). It is an amazing group of people, and I am very blessed to be working with them, and I continually learn from their insights, and from all that they contribute to our knowledge of flourishing from their research (certainly including Ying Chen, who led the gratitude study). I do further want to express gratitude specifically to a few members of that staff who have had longer-term roles within the Program and have recently accepted what are, admittedly, wonderful faculty positions elsewhere. Dr. Jeffrey Hanson, our Senior Philosopher, who has been with us since the founding of the Human Flourishing Program in 2016, and has written on the philosophy of work, on meaning in life, on love, and on many other topics has accepted a faculty position in philosophy at New College in Florida; he will continue to collaborate with the Program on many of these topics but his presence with us will much missed. Dr. Xavier Symons, who served wonderfully as Coordinator for our Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion and also worked on numerous projects on bioethics, on flourishing at the end of life, and on the nature of well-being, left us in April to move to Australia Catholic University as associate professor and Director of the Plunkett Center for Ethics. And finally, our Associate Director, Dr. Flynn Cratty, after four years with us, has accepted a professor of practice and leadership position at UNC Chapel Hill’s new School of Civic Life and Leadership. Dr. Cratty helped oversee the expansion of Program over these past years; started our undergraduate Flourishing Fellows Program and Oxford Vivarium; and further helped found, and served as the Executive Director of, Harvard’s Council on Academic Freedom. The contribution of each of these three departing staff has been very considerable indeed, and I am very grateful for them; and so much of what they did will continue to benefit us at the Program, and Harvard more generally, and I believe also the world, and so I do wish to express sincere thanks for all of their many contributions and to wish them well in their new endeavors. Thankfully, with various continuing projects and ongoing collaborations, these are, in many ways, just transitions rather than formal farewells…
 
The departure of our Associate Director also means we have a very important opening in the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard. We have just launched a search for an Executive Director for the Program to help oversee and lead all aspects of the Program’s life and staff and public presence. While previously our Associate Director role was part academic and part leadership-administrative, we have grown to a sufficient size, with sufficient reach, that we need someone to devote full-time effort to help lead, manage, guide, and oversee all of the Program’s various activities. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in the position, we are encouraging applications, as the position is essential to help the Program in its work of studying and promoting human flourishing. Applications at this relatively high position grade at Harvard do require eight years of prior management experience; a cover letter can explain how this qualification is met if it is not immediately clear from the CV. We are also grateful to all of you -our readers, collaborators, and partners- for all that you do as well, to help us, and to help promote human flourishing.

 

Tyler J. VanderWeele, 
John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Director, Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University

 

 
A permanent link to this research note is available here:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/human-flourishing/202408/gratitude-shown-to-extend-longevity
You are welcome to distribute or re-post the link to this research update elsewhere.
 
The Human Flourishing Program grants reporters and journalists permission to re-use and quote any of the above material, provided proper attribution is given.

 

Key References and Related Articles

 

 

Program Updates

 

Apply for Executive Director position of 
The Human Flourishing Program

 

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As mentioned above, we just began our search for an Executive Director for the Program to help oversee and lead all aspects of the Program’s life and staff and public presence. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in the position, we encourage you to apply. This position is essential to help the Program in its work of studying and promoting human flourishing. Apply here!

 

Our Mission

 


The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science aims to study and promote human flourishing, and to develop systematic approaches to the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines. You can sign up here for a monthly research e-mail from the Human Flourishing Program, or click here to follow us on Twitter. For past postings please see our Psychology Today Human Flourishing Blog.
 

 

 

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