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Publication THANKFULLY, THEY LISTEN: GRATITUDE AND OBEDIENCE TO HARM OTHERS(2021-04-09) THOMAS LIM ENG KIAT; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI EDDIETraditional research has established gratitude as a prosocial emotion, encouraging helping behaviors to benefit others. However, the current paper expands on a novel conceptualization of gratitude. Building upon the social alignment theory of gratitude which proposes that gratitude increases tendencies to follow social conventions, we propose that grateful individuals obey to greater extents orders to criticize and undermine a scholarship essay, even if it sabotages the applicant. This finding would contradict conventional views of gratitude, challenging it as a purely prosocial emotion. We further propose that this effect could be mediated by trust in the benefactor. In a between-subjects experiment, participants were randomly induced with either gratitude, neutral or gratitude with lowered trust. Participants were then ordered to harshly criticize a scholarship essay, with their comments acting as the operationalized measure of obedience. Our results provide partial support for the hypothesis, where individuals in the gratitude (without lowered trust) condition provided evaluations that were more negative and thus harsher on the scholarship applicant than neutral participants. However, results failed to reflect support for trust in the benefactor as a mediator. The finding provides preliminary support for the social alignment theory in influencing obedience, showing that gratitude can elicit harmful behaviors through misguided obedience. A more comprehensive understanding of gratitude is thus required that acknowledges the potential missteps of the emotion.Publication FROM APPRECIATION TO ATTENTION: THE EFFECT OF GRATITUDE ON THE DETECTION OF AFFILIATIVE CUES(2019-11-04) CHRISTABEL YIP SI HUI; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI, EDDIEPast research shows that negative emotions can influence early-stage cognitive processes. This paper examined the prosocial effect of gratitude on the detection of faces at a perceptual level. It was hypothesized that gratitude would lead to a quicker detection of happy and angry faces, as they are relevant for social affiliation. The study was a 3 x 3 x 2 mixed design. University students (n = 159) were induced with gratitude, amusement or neutral emotion and their reaction time on the face-in-the-crowd visual search task was recorded. Participants searched for a happy, angry or sad discrepant face situated in emotional or neutral crowds. Contrary to predictions, no effect of emotion was found. This finding suggests that the effect positive emotions have on early-stage cognitive processes may differ from that of negative emotions.Publication GRATITUDE AND CONFORMITY: TESTING THE SOCIAL ALIGNMENT FUNCTION IN A MORAL DILEMMA JUDGEMENT TASK(2019-11-04) SHANA SIM SIXUAN; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI, EDDIERecent research has provided evidence for the social alignment function of gratitude, where gratitude has been shown to increase conformity to social norms in various tasks. The present study sought to extend the existing gratitude and conformity research by testing the social alignment function in the context of a moral dilemma judgement task. Hence, this study examined whether experiencing gratitude would increase conformity to moral dilemma judgements. Using a 3 (emotion: gratitude vs. amusement vs. neutral) x 2 (normative acceptance: low vs. high) x 2 (confederate acceptance: low vs. high) mixed design, participants underwent an emotion induction recall task, before completing a moral dilemma judgement task. Fabricated survey results purportedly displaying judgement responses from past participants were displayed with each vignette. We replicated conformity effects, where participants aligned themselves with the fabricated responses. Contrary to previous research, our study found that grateful participants were not more likely than amused or neutral participants to conform to confederates' responses. Hence, the results do not support the hypothesis that the social alignment function of gratitude operates in a moral dilemma judgement task.Publication GRATITUDE INTERVENTION, PERFORMANCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOMES OF DEFENSIVE PESSIMISTS(2022-04-07) CHIA KAI'EN, MINN; PSYCHOLOGY; HONG YEE SHIUN, RYANDefensive pessimism is a strategy where individuals set low expectations for their performance and engage in negative reflections about possible outcomes. Although positivity has been shown to impair performance of defensive pessimists, past research is insufficient to support the notion that positivity is inherently harmful for these individuals. This study fills the gaps by examining the effects of one specific aspect of positivity (i.e., gratitude) on defensive pessimists without interfering with their strategy. A between-subjects experiment with 119 undergraduates from the National University of Singapore was conducted to examine if gratitude can improve psychological outcomes of defensive pessimists without compromising their good performance. Results did not support our overall hypothesis; while the good performance of defensive pessimists was maintained, gratitude did not improve psychological outcomes. Contrary to past research however, this study demonstrated that positivity is not inherently harmful for defensive pessimists – gratitude did not impair performance when pessimists engaged in their usual strategy of negative reflection. This highlights the importance of not interfering with their strategy and the need to be cognisant about individual differences when advocating for positive psychology interventions.Publication THANK YOU, I’LL OBEY: THE INFLUENCE OF GRATITUDE AND SOCIAL HARMONY ON OBEDIENCE TO MORALLY QUESTIONABLE COMMANDS(2024-04-12) DARREN CHAN JING HENG; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI EDDIEGratitude is typically perceived as a positive emotion associated with beneficial outcomes. However, based on the social alignment function of gratitude, gratitude potentially increases susceptibility to social influence, causing individuals to become more likely to demonstrate alignment towards a range of behaviours (Ng et al., 2017). The present study aims to examine if the social alignment effect would result in grateful individuals becoming more likely to demonstrate obedience towards a morally questionable command to lie, and whether the need for social harmony mediates this relationship. Using emotion induction processes and a dice-rolling task where participants were commanded to lie about their scores, it was found that those induced to feel gratitude were more likely to obey such a command. Need for social harmony was also found to play a mediating role between gratitude and obedience. Overall, our findings managed to validate and expound on the social alignment effect.Publication COMMUNITY SERVICE AND WELL-BEING IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS(2020-04-20) CHEW TAI WEN; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI EDDIEPast literature on community service has shown that community service produces many positive effects, however most of the literature were either on seniors or western-focused. The current paper aims to examine the benefits of community service on university students in Singapore in three main categories: Gratitude (i.e. dispositional gratitude, gratitude feelings), Well-being (i.e. life satisfaction, global positive emotions, global negative emotions, social-economic well-being) and Prosociality (i.e. charitable donations, empathic concern). It was hypothesized that community service will lead to higher levels of effect and change on positive variables and lower level of effect and change on negative variables. We predict that overseas community service will have greater effects than local community service, which in turn have greater effect on non- community service. Data was collected through surveys done by 369 National University of Singapore students, aged 19 to 26. Results shows that community service leads to positive benefits in dispositional gratitude, gratitude feelings, life satisfaction, positive emotions, socio-economic well-being and charitable donation. Overseas community service effects posed significant effects on participants, while local community service did not. The study supported the prevalence of these variables which can be considerations for future research on community servicePublication “THANKS... BUT NO THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK”: THE EFFECT OF GRATITUDE ON SOCIAL FEEDBACK RECEPTIVITY(2020-04-20) CHEO KAI QING; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI EDDIEExisting literature on gratitude has focused on prosocial outcomes. However, emerging evidence of a social alignment function suggests that gratitude may also bring about non-prosocial outcomes. To provide support for this novel proposition, this study hypothesised that gratitude increases social feedback receptivity. After an in-vivo emotion induction phase, participants received false social feedback that was either positive or negative. Participants’ receptivity to the feedback was then reflected by effects on state self-esteem, which was measured using implicit and explicit measures. While we hypothesised that implicit self-esteem would show the predicted effects, it was left to be explored whether the same could be found for explicit self-esteem. Consistent with our predictions, a measure of implicit self-esteem found that grateful participants were more receptive to social feedback than joy and neutral participants. Thus, this study lends support for the social alignment theory. The susceptibility of one’s self-concept to social feedback thus suggests the possibility of gratitude engendering detrimental outcomes for the self in response to negative feedback. Consequently, this calls for a more balanced approach to studying positive emotions. Interestingly, explicit self-esteem failed to show similar effects. The contributions this has towards current understanding of the implicit-explicit attitudinal distinction is then discussed.Publication I AM GRATEFUL, THEREFORE I WILL: THE EFFECTS OF GRATITUDE ON THE OBEDIENCE TO LIE(2019-11-04) DELIA POH XUE QI; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI, EDDIEGratitude is conventionally perceived in extant literature as a positive emotion that motivates prosocial behaviour. Contrary to this, emerging research has suggested that gratitude might increase one's tendency to align themselves with others, regardless of the outcome (Ng et al., 2017). This paper aims to extend on this social alignment theory of gratitude, proposing that grateful people would be more likely to obey their benefactors, even under directives that go against moral norms. This study adopted a between-subjects design with three conditions (emotions: gratitude, joy, neutral), and participants were tasked to roll a die several times for chances to participate in a lucky draw. Participants were ordered by the experimenter to lie about their scores, and their reported total scores served as the dependent measure of obedience. Results indicated that participants in the grateful condition reported higher total scores than those in the neutral and joyful conditions, suggesting that grateful people have a greater propensity to obey for their own self-benefit. Overall, these findings lend support to the social alignment function of gratitude, illustrating that gratitude can lead to outcomes that are not merely prosocial.Publication THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEPTIONS OF GOD AND GRATITUDE(2024-04-12) KYMBERLY GOH KAI XUAN; PSYCHOLOGY; LEE LI NENG; LEE RUSSELLThis study examines the effects of perceptions of God on gratitude using the self-determination theory framework. The aim of the study is to investigate the mediating effect of basic psychological needs on the relationship between perceptions of God and gratitude. 155 participants (18-50 years old), consisting of individuals who believe in God and are followers of monotheistic religions (i.e., Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam), completed a survey. The survey included a series of questionnaires measuring participants’ perceptions of God, the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs and gratitude. Additional constructs such as participants’ levels of neuroticism, depression, anxiety and stress were also measured. Controlling for neuroticism, mediation analysis showed that basic psychological needs fully mediated the relationship between the perception of an autonomy-supportive God and gratitude, but did not mediate the relationship between the perception of a controlling God and gratitude. The findings contribute to the broader literature of understanding the thoughts, emotions and behaviour of religious people, recognizing the important role of basic psychological needs in shaping the relationship between perceptions of God and gratitude.Publication SOCIAL ALIGNMENT THEORY: EXPLORING GRATITUDE’S EFFECTS ON UNETHICAL OBEDIENCE AND THE MEDIATING ROLE OF TRUST(2022-04-08) LOW WAN YI, MATILDA; PSYCHOLOGY; TONG MUN WAI EDDIEA large proportion of the gratitude literature thus far has focused on its positive and prosocial outcomes. Recently, a relatively new theory of gratitude has been proposed: The social alignment theory. While still in its development, evidence supporting this theory has demonstrated that the social alignment effects of gratitude may also lead to neutral and even negative outcomes. The present study seeks to extend the support for this theory by experimentally investigating how gratitude may result in obedience to self-benefitting, unethical commands from one’s benefactor, and whether this relationship is mediated by trust. Using a two-study approach, gratitude and trust are manipulated separately in each study (Study 1: gratitude vs. neutral; Study 2: low-trust vs. high-trust) and their effects on unethical obedience are analysed. The results did not provide support for either hypothesis. Firstly, gratitude did not predict obedience; instead, individuals in the neutral condition demonstrated more obedience. Secondly, trust was not found to have mediated this relationship. These findings do not necessarily provide counterevidence against the social alignment theory, but they do suggest that gratitude’s social alignment effects may not be as strong as what we might expect. However, some limitations of the study are discussed, and further investigations are required to continually build up the evidence base for the social alignment theory.