Not just love and safety, but excitement, energy, fun, and passion: relational predictors of gratitude to God and desires to “pay it forward”

Abstract

Many people who see themselves as having a relationship with God think of this bond in terms of love and safety. Yet some might also see this relationship in energetic terms: as exciting, lively, passionate, or fun. An online survey asked 871 U.S. adults who believed in God to reflect on a recent positive life event. Three measures assessed relational energy or excitement: a slider item, a Likert item, and a set of eight adjectives. Regressions consistently showed that even when controlling for perceived love and safety in the relationship, this energy/excitement dimension predicted more gratitude to God, more divine attributions and gift appraisals for the event, feeling more loved by God, and greater desires to pass on kindness to others. The predictive role of energy/excitement was not reducible to religiousness, God belief, state or trait gratitude, trait gratitude to God, feeling energized, subjective vitality, or social desirability.