The pursuit of happiness is one of the most universal human aspirations. Across cultures and generations, people have searched for ways to live happier, healthier and more meaningful lives. Gratitude is an inherent part of human nature and, when consciously practiced, can contribute to a happier and more fulfilling life.
But can just a few minutes of attention make a measurable difference to our well-being?
On July 8, 2025, a major study titled “A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions on Well-Being Across Cultures” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a prestigious, peer-reviewed American scientific journal that publishes research across a wide range of disciplines. Conducted by Hyewon Choi, Youngjae Cha, Michael E. McCullough, Nicholas A. Coles and Shigehiro Oishi, this research represents one of the most comprehensive analyses of gratitude interventions to date.
The researchers brought together data from 145 studies involving 24,804 participants across 28 countries, offering an unusually broad international perspective on whether practising gratitude can measurably influence human well-being.
Rather than conducting a single new experiment, Choi and her colleagues performed a meta-analysis, a statistical method that combines the results of many independent studies to determine whether a consistent pattern emerges. These studies examined different gratitude practices (from keeping gratitude journals and counting one’s blessings to writing letters expressing appreciation) and measured their effects on well-being.
The conclusion was encouraging. Across the studies, gratitude interventions produced a small but statistically significant positive effect on well-being. The researchers found particularly consistent benefits for positive emotions and overall well-being. The magnitude of the effect varied across countries, suggesting that cultural context may influence how gratitude is understood, expressed and experienced. Yet across remarkably different populations, the broader pattern remained: intentionally practising gratitude was associated with measurable improvements in well-being.
A Second Meta-analysis Points to Mental Health Benefits
The above findings are supported by an earlier systematic review and meta-analysis led by G. Diniz and colleagues, published in 2023. This analysis included 64 randomised clinical trials, of which 33 contributed to the meta-analysis, allowing researchers to examine more specifically how gratitude interventions compared with control conditions.
These results provide a more concrete picture of their potential psychological benefits. Participants who practised gratitude showed 6.86% higher life satisfaction and 5.8% better mental health, while anxiety and depression symptom scores were 7.76% and 6.89% lower, respectively compared with control groups. These figures represent average differences across the studies rather than guaranteed outcomes for every individual, but they reinforce the broader scientific picture: gratitude appears capable of producing modest yet measurable benefits across several dimensions of psychological well-being.
Taken together, the two meta-analyses tell complementary stories. Choi and colleagues demonstrate the remarkable breadth of the evidence (across nearly 25,000 people and 28 countries) while Diniz and colleagues help quantify some of the specific psychological benefits observed in controlled trials. Neither suggests that gratitude radically transforms a person overnight. Instead, they point toward something more realistic and perhaps more powerful: a simple, accessible practice that may offer improvements in the way people experience their lives.
From the Mind to the Body
On April 17, 2025, H. R. Altier and colleagues published a study in Frontiers in Sleep involving 869 primary-care patients in Germany. Greater gratitude was associated with fewer sleep disturbances, partly through greater confidence in managing one’s health, healthier behaviours and lower psychological distress, including anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Because the study was observational: it does not provide conclusive evidence that gratitude leads to better sleep, though it does show an association between the two. These findings also raise an intriguing possibility: changing what occupies our attention may influence the psychological processes we carry with us into the night.
Research is also beginning to examine possible implications for cardiovascular health. In 2026 R. Hernandez and colleagues reviewed evidence from 18 randomized trials of positive-psychology interventions, including gratitude journaling, optimism training and mindfulness. They found consistent improvements in some cardiovascular risk factors, health behaviours and medication adherence, while emphasizing that evidence for long-term cardiovascular outcomes remains incomplete.
Can a Few Minutes Really Matter?
Published on June 4, 2025, the Big Joy Project, led by psychologist D. A. Guevarra and colleagues examined brief daily well-being practices among 17,598 participants from 169 countries and territories. Participants spent only minutes each day on activities such as expressing gratitude, performing an act of kindness, celebrating another person’s happiness, noticing something awe-inspiring or reflecting on personal values.
Participants reported improvements in emotional well-being and positive emotions, alongside reductions in stress. The more daily activities they completed, the greater the observed benefits.
Gratitude does not require pretending that everything is fine. It does not erase grief, injustice, illness or uncertainty. Nor should it become an obligation to “stay positive.” Instead, gratitude asks us to notice that difficulty and goodness can coexist.
Interestingly, these scientific findings echo teachings that have been passed down for millennia across spiritual and religious traditions. From Buddhism and Indigenous spiritual traditions to Christianity and Hinduism, gratitude has long been valued as a practice that fosters inner peace, compassion and a deeper connection with life.
A practical experiment can be remarkably simple: at the end of the day, identify one specific thing for which you are grateful, consider why it mattered, and when another person was involved, tell them. A meal shared. A conversation. Someone who listened. A body that carried us through another day. A stranger’s kindness. A patch of sunlight. Research increasingly suggests that such moments are not insignificant. Repeated over time, small shifts in attention may accumulate into something larger: a different relationship with our circumstances, with other people and with ourselves.
In a world that constantly trains our attention toward what is missing, threatening or going wrong, gratitude offers a quiet counterbalance. We may not always be able to change what happens to us. But through small, deliberate acts of attention, we can influence what we notice, what we nurture and what we carry forward.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, perhaps the greatest gift of gratitude is this gentle reminder: even in an imperfect world, there is still something worth appreciating.
