SIT DOWN, BE GRATEFUL: THE EFFECTS OF GRATITUDE ON OBEDIENCE

Abstract

Many studies have demonstrated the prosocial effects of gratitude, but this study presents a darker side of gratitude - the effects of gratitude on obedience to carry out harmful acts. In recent studies on the social alignment effects of gratitude (Ng et al., 2017), gratitude as a positive other-directed emotion, has been found to increase one's susceptibility to social influence (e.g. conformity). The current study hypothesises that due to gratitude's social alignment functions, grateful participants will experience a greater inclination to obey. The first pilot study section outlines the efficacy of the in-vivo emotion manipulation methods used and the second pilot study section examines the authenticity of the obedience paradigm adapted from Wiltermuth's (2012) study. Both methods were found to be effective. In the main study section, gratitude's effects on obedience was examined using the procedure from pilot study one and two. To investigate the possibility that grateful participants obey the experimenter out of positive regard, admiration was included as another emotion of interest. It was found that grateful participants displayed significantly higher levels of obedience, compared to participants in the admiration and neutral condition. Thus, this study has implications on how we understand gratitude and its social alignment functions.