Give Thanks: Gratitude Can Rewire Your Brain

When was the last time you consciously took a moment to appreciate your stocked fridge, cozy bed, or close friends? Gratitude is a powerful human emotion, one that can shape our brain, our behavior, and our relationships, and yet it’s so often overlooked.

Psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough define gratitude as a two-step process: first recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome, then recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.¹ Some psychologists further categorize gratitude into an affective trait (i.e., having a “grateful disposition"), a mood (with daily fluctuations), or an emotion (a temporary feeling after receiving a gift or favor).

No matter which way we classify it, the truth is undeniable: gratitude is associated with a multitude of benefits, especially social ones.

A recent study found that people with more gratitude (as a trait) appeared to have more altruistic brains, illustrated by the response in the areas of participants’ brains associated with reward when they were told a charity would receive money.² This neural response was then shown to strengthen over time in participants assigned to keep a gratitude journal.

The implications are profound: Gratitude can rewire the brain in a way that allows people to feel more rewarded when other people benefit. More prosocial behavior means more sharing and caring and cooperation, leading to stronger relationships, less toxic workplace climates, and increased volunteer participation. In short? Gratitude can change our society for the better.

Through neuroimaging studies, researchers have revealed the brain areas involved in experiencing and expressing gratitude—many of which are related to how we interact with the world and people around us.

One functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study found that emotions like gratitude and pride activated areas in the mesolimbic and basal forebrain, regions involved in feelings of reward and social bond formation.³ Another study found that people who more willingly experience gratitude have more gray matter in an area of their brain associated with interpreting others’ intentions.⁴ Greater gratitude expression was also correlated with more activity in the parietal and lateral prefrontal cortex, areas of the brain associated with making mental calculations, per another study.⁵ This reveals that gratitude is not just an emotional process, but a cognitive one, involving conscious thought and decision-making. You can actively choose to cultivate gratitude, just like you can develop a skill over time.

Genetics may also be involved in how one experiences and expresses gratitude, influencing “love hormone” oxytocin and “motivation molecule” dopamine—biochemical messengers involved in social bonding. One study found that a variation in the CD38 gene, involved in the secretion of oxytocin, was significantly associated with quality and frequency of expressions of gratitude toward a romantic partner (both in a laboratory setting and in daily life).⁶ Another study found that individuals with particular variants of the COMT gene, which is involved in dopamine recycling in the brain, reported more dispositional gratitude.⁷ 

Not only does gratitude foster stronger community ties and positive social dynamics, serving the greater good, but it also has many personal benefits, including better physical and psychological health, less burnout, and increased happiness. Gratitude:

• Encourages Self-Improvement: Gratitude prompts positive emotions (elevation, humility, and connectedness) as well as negative ones (indebtedness, guilt, discomfort) to motivate people to put more effort into positive behaviors, like exercising, eating healthier, and being kinder.⁸⁻⁹

• Increases Resilience: Studies show that more grateful people are more resilient following traumatic events.¹⁰ Another study found that more grateful patients reported better sleep, less fatigue, and more self-efficacy, all helpful in their healing journey.¹¹

• Enhances Psychological Health: People with higher levels of dispositional gratitude have been shown to have signs of better psychological health, including higher levels of perceived social support and lower levels of stress.¹²⁻¹³

• Increases Sleep Quality: In a large study of young women, those who kept a gratitude journal for two weeks (versus those who wrote about daily events and those who didn’t journal at all) reported a small-but-significant improvement in their daily sleep quality.¹⁴ 

One way to cultivate an attitude of gratitude? Daily gratitude practices. Studies have found that gratitude practices, like keeping a “gratitude journal”, the “Three Good Things” activity, or writing a letter of gratitude, can boost people’s happiness, support mental health, and support an overall healthy mood.¹⁵⁻¹⁶

In particular, one study found that participants who had written gratitude letters in a therapeutic intervention expressed more gratitude and had more activity three months later in part of their brain involved in predicting the outcomes of actions—suggesting that a simple gratitude intervention can have lasting brain changes, even months later.⁵

Try for yourself: Draft a letter to someone or something you’re grateful for (even if you don’t send). Or, try gratitude journaling, reflecting on moments of joy, accomplishments, or contentment. Try adding it to your routine by habit-stacking, journaling as you wind down at night or with your coffee in the a.m. Writing helps reinforce, but even just stating aloud or sharing with a partner or friend can also be beneficial (and hold you accountable!).

Hedonic adaptation is when you get so used to the positive developments in life that you take them for granted.¹⁷ Let’s use gratitude on a daily basis as the powerful tool for personal and societal well-being that it is (and not just practice it at the Thanksgiving table).

¹Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377–389. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.377

²Karns, C. M., Moore, W. E., & Mayr, U. (2017). The cultivation of pure altruism via gratitude: A functional MRI study of change with gratitude practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, 599. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00599

³Zahn, R., Moll, J., Paiva, M., Garrido, G., Krueger, F., Huey, E. D., & Grafman, J. (2009). The neural basis of human social values: Evidence from functional MRI. Cerebral Cortex, 19(2), 276–283. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhn097

⁴Zahn, R., Garrido, G., Moll, J., & Grafman, J. (2014). Individual differences in posterior cortical volume correlate with proneness to pride and gratitude. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(11), 1676–1683. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nst158

⁵Kini, P., Wong, J., McInnis, S., Gabana, N., & Brown, J. W. (2016). The effects of gratitude expression on neural activity. NeuroImage, 128, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.12.040

⁶Algoe, S. B., & Way, B. M. (2014). Evidence for a role of the oxytocin system, indexed by genetic variation in CD38, in the social bonding effects of expressed gratitude. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(12), 1855–1861. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nst182

⁷Liu, J., Gong, P., Gao, X., & Zhou, X. (2017). The association between well-being and the COMT gene: Dispositional gratitude and forgiveness as mediators. Journal of Affective Disorders, 214, 115–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.03.005

⁸Armenta, C. N., Fritz, M. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2017). Functions of Positive Emotions: Gratitude as a Motivator of Self-Improvement and Positive Change. Emotion Review, 9(3), 183-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073916669596

⁹Walsh, L. C., Armenta, C. N., Itzchakov, G., Fritz, M. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2022). More than merely positive: The immediate affective and motivational consequences of gratitude. Sustainability, 14(14), 8679. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148679

¹⁰Millstein, R. A., Celano, C. M., Beale, E. E., Beach, S. R., Suarez, L., Belcher, A. M., Januzzi, J. L., & Huffman, J. C. (2016). The effects of optimism and gratitude on adherence, functioning and mental health following an acute coronary syndrome. General hospital psychiatry, 43, 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2016.08.006

¹¹Mills, P. J., Redwine, L., Wilson, K., Pung, M. A., Chinh, K., Greenberg, B. H., Lunde, O., Maisel, A., Raisinghani, A., Wood, A., & Chopra, D. (2015). The role of gratitude in spiritual well-being in asymptomatic heart failure patients. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 2(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000050

¹²Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Gillett, R., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(4), 854–871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.11.003

¹³Froh, J. J., Emmons, R. A., Card, N. A., & et al. (2011). Gratitude and the reduced costs of materialism in adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12(2), 289–302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9195-9

¹⁴Jackowska, M., Brown, J., Ronaldson, A., & Steptoe, A. (2016). The impact of a brief gratitude intervention on subjective well-being, biology, and sleep. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(10), 2207–2217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105315572455

¹⁵Kerr, S. L., O'Donovan, A., & Pepping, C. A. (2015). Can gratitude and kindness interventions enhance well-being in a clinical sample? Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(1), 17–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9492-1

¹⁶Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410

¹⁷Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111