Why do we feel gratitude anyway? Gratitude seems like an incredibly central emotion in our interactions with other humans, and there is good reason for that!
In past blogs, we have written about how critical cultivating gratitude can be in promoting healthy relationships and even in ensuring good physical health. Building on this research, a new study by Dr. Hongbo Yu and his team dug deeper into the neurological mechanisms at play and the fundamental role of gratitude in interpersonal interactions.
In this groundbreaking research, Dr. Yu and his team sought to use MRI machines to map out which regions of the brain were particularly active while the participant was feeling gratitude.
While past work has also sought to do this, this project was novel in trying to map out antecedent emotions, such as prosocial and reciprocal behaviors and cognitions, as well as the behaviors following feelings of gratitude.
In order to better understand these concepts, they recruited a series of 36 participants and asked them to engage in a series of activities. In each of these, participants were asked to subject themselves to a brief electric shock in exchange for receiving a monetary bonus.
Following this initial stage, participants underwent brain scans to map out relevant brain regions before engaging in “help-receiving tasks.” Here, participants were paired with fellow subjects. While one individual was to receive mild pain, their compatriot was asked to spend money to relieve their other’s suffering.
Importantly, participants were asked to decide exactly how they would behave while still undergoing the MRI brain scans. This tracked cognitions like whether they planned to help, but also the reaction of a participant to learning that they will be relieved of the pain by a stranger.
In analyzing the results, Dr. Yu’s team was able to compile a computational model that can help guide further research into this emotion. Moreover, the processes identified are not necessarily tied to gratitude alone but could be further connected to other cognitive mechanisms.
This leads to the exciting possibility that this study is a building block into larger attempts to map out cognitive processes and emotions by the neurological activity at play. Certainly this could have widespread ramifications for the study of psychology and on efforts to better read people.
The authors conclude by expressing hope that this study “serves as a role-model for investigation of the neurobiological basis of other complex emotions and their significance in social-moral life.”
But how is this helpful to better reading people? First, the study helped better understand how emotions are constructed and then converted into behavior. By understanding these processes, researchers are better able to apply neurological insights to everyday behaviors.