Do Grateful People Protect Their Benefactors at the Expense of Other People? Implications From Loss-Framed Welfare Tradeoff Ratios

Abstract

This study examined whether grateful people are prone to sacrificing other people for the sake of their benefactors, themselves for the sake of their benefactors, and themselves for the sake of other people. Study 1 used a vignette methodology to induce participants' gratitude, and Study 2 an autobiographical recall procedure. In Study 1, the participants who received benevolent benefits in the vignette (gratitude condition) were more likely to sacrifice other people for the sake of their benefactors compared to those receiving benefits without benevolent intention (indebtedness-baseline condition). The same method revealed a tendency for grateful people to sacrifice themselves for benefactors and others. Study 1's results could not be replicated by the preregistered analysis in Study 2. However, gratitude positively correlated with their propensity to sacrifice other people for the sake of benefactors, though it was not a preregistered analysis. The findings reveal the bright and dark sides of the consequences of gratitude.