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Be grateful and it’ll make you patient!

A study by an American psychologist looking for a link between patience and the level of gratitude that people feel towards others has prompted me to do some serious thinking. Here are the main points of the study, and its astonishing conclusion.

David DeSteno, a researcher at Northeastern University, asked 105 volunteers to carry out a task using a computer – which was programmed to turn itself off when the task was nearly complete, so that it looked as if the volunteer’s work had been lost. The computer malfunction was apparently serious, requiring a call to tech support, but it was quickly “repaired” by another volunteer who was secretly a confederate of Mr DeSteno’s. The trick in the experimental protocol was that, when the machine came back on, the volunteer found that all his work was safe. He didn’t have to start over.

The people who showed the most gratitude towards the confederate were also the most patient in the following week. Three weeks later, these same people were offered a sum of money. They could choose between getting a small amount straight away, or a somewhat larger amount later on. The most grateful, which is to say the most patient, chose to wait.

The researcher’s conclusion was that gratitude towards yourself and towards others “enhances self-control and patience. When you cultivate gratitude in your life, it protects your self-control. That helps you to resist temptation, and helps you make good decisions”.

In other words, cultivating gratitude towards people who help you and/or wish you well makes you better able to control your emotions. And that has its uses in some situations, when the emotion of the moment pushes us to do things that, with a little thought, we wouldn’t do. Such as giving in to the temptation to impulse-buy your fortieth pair of shoes.

Be grateful, and you’ll save money!

The study appeared in the journal Emotion.

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