ResearchSocial connection
Does gratitude practice actually work?
Last reviewed 17 August 2026
The verdict
The effect is real and small. Across 145 papers, 727 effect sizes and 24,804 people in 28 countries, gratitude interventions improved wellbeing at g = 0.19. It reached significance in some countries and not others, and no cultural variable the researchers tested explained why. People who start with the least gratitude gain the most.
Strength of evidence
- traditional
- emerging
- informed
- established
Real signal in the research, with small studies, small effects, or few controls holding it back. How we grade
What counts as a gratitude practice?
In research it usually means one of three things: listing things you are grateful for, writing a letter of thanks to someone, or keeping a regular journal of good events. Sessions are short, run daily or weekly, and last a few weeks in most trials.
The claims made for it range from mild to extraordinary. The evidence sits at the mild end, and it is more solid than most of what gets sold alongside it.
How large is the effect?
Small, and reliably present. A 2025 meta-analysis in PNAS pooled 145 papers, 163 samples, 727 effect sizes and 24,804 participants across 28 countries, finding a pooled effect on wellbeing of g = 0.19.
Choi, Cha, McCullough, Coles and Oishi ran this, and it is the largest and most careful treatment of the question. They note the size is comparable to medical interventions considered clinically meaningful, while being technically small in psychological terms. Both halves of that framing belong here.
Effects were strongest when the outcome measured was positive emotion, when several kinds of gratitude exercise were combined, and in randomised trials rather than weaker designs.
Does it work for everyone?
No, and the pattern is genuinely unexplained. The intervention showed meaningful effects in countries including Hong Kong, Spain and South Korea, and non-significant effects in France, India, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The researchers preregistered seven cultural variables to explain this, including individualism, GDP per capita, religiosity and relational mobility. None of them accounted for the variation. That is an honest negative result inside a positive finding, and it means nobody currently knows why the practice travels to some places and not others.
One moderator did work, and it is useful. People with lower trait gratitude to begin with benefited most. If gratitude comes easily to you already, a formal practice has less room to add.
What about depression and stress?
The picture is better where people started worse. Reviews of gratitude list interventions report improvements in perceived stress and depression, with the clearest gains among participants who had at least moderate symptoms at baseline. Effects on general wellbeing were less consistent.
One proposed mechanism has support: gratitude practice appears to reduce repetitive negative thinking, and that reduction mediated the effect on depression and anxiety. Interrupting rumination is a plausible and specific pathway.
None of this makes gratitude a treatment. It is a low-cost practice with a small measured effect, which is worth knowing before it is offered as an answer to something serious.
How should you do it?
Weekly rather than daily is a reasonable default. Daily listing tends to become repetitive, and the reviews suggest varying the exercise contributes to larger effects.
Be specific and be about people. A named person and a particular thing they did carries more than a general list, and it points at the mechanism that connects this to social connection, which has far stronger evidence behind it.
Expect a small effect and judge it over weeks. If you already notice good things easily, this is not where your effort will pay best.
Questions people ask
- Is a gratitude journal worth the time?
- At g = 0.19 the effect is small and real. It costs a few minutes a week, which is a reasonable trade for a small reliable gain.
- Why does it not work in some countries?
- Nobody knows. Seven preregistered cultural variables failed to explain the variation between countries.
- Should I do it every day?
- Daily listing tends to repeat itself. Varying the exercise and spacing it out is associated with larger effects.
- Can gratitude help with depression?
- Improvements appear clearest in people with at least moderate baseline symptoms, partly by reducing repetitive negative thinking. It is not a treatment.
Sources
Every linked source below was opened and checked on the review date. Where a record could not be opened, it is named in the text with no link.
Choi H, Cha Y, McCullough ME, Coles NA, Oishi S (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One hundred and forty-five papers, 727 effect sizes, 24,804 participants across 28 countries, pooled g = 0.19. Significant in some countries and not others, with no tested cultural variable explaining the difference. English-language publications only.