Why the study?
Gratitude has been linked to better health and well-being via biobehavioral mechanisms, but findings remain heterogeneous to date.
Do gratitude interventions improve cardiac stress responses and resting pulse rate compared to active control?
Do gratitude interventions improve cardiac stress responses and resting pulse rate compared to active control?
Gratitude interventions, such as letter writing and journaling, may improve cardiac vagal regulation and lower resting pulse rate.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Gratitude interventions may enhance vagal regulation; hypothesis-generating for cardiac health benefits, requiring larger trials before practice change.
Gratitude has been related with better health and wellbeing. Pathways may involve biobehavioral mechanisms, though findings appear heterogeneous to date. We conducted two studies to examine the cardiac effects of gratitude interventions. Study 1 (N = 76) investigated the acute effects of a gratitude letter intervention (vs. active control) on cardiac stress responses and Study 2 (N = 133) evaluated the effects of a two weeks-gratitude journaling intervention on resting pulse rate. Study 1 found a stronger vagal withdrawal to stress (assessed via heart rate variability) accompanied by a pronounced rebound effect during recovery in the gratitude condition. Study 2 found that gratitude journaling resulted in lower resting pulse rate as compared to an active control exercise, but no differences with respect to subjective well-being. Together, findings suggest that gratitude interventions may benefit cardiac vagal regulation, which could facilitate cardiac health in the long-term.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Schwerdtfeger et al. (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: