Glad to help out: Grateful people are more likely to engage in costly prosocial action.

= 360) and one with a U.S. college student sample (Study 4b; N = 362)-did not result in a similar effect for state gratitude (although those who scored higher on trait gratitude in these experiments reported greater intentions to engage in costly prosocial actions). Together, our findings challenge claims that gratitude reinforces the status quo and undermines efforts to bring about societal change. Instead, we show that more grateful people are more likely to take on the hard, costly work of advancing the greater good. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).