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from the thank-you-so-very-much-for-reading-this! dept.
Why Don't People Express Gratitude More Often?
“Researchers have known for 15 years that gratitude improves well-being. There’s lots of work done on this already,” says Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business and lead author of a new paper that examines the consequences of showing appreciation. “What was interesting to me is that even though it’s something that’s well-known, people still don’t express gratitude all that often.”
To find out why, Kumar and his co-author Nicholas Epley, from the University of Chicago, conducted a series of studies recently published in Psychological Science looking at what happens when people send letters of gratitude.
Their findings offer insight into why people tend to withhold their gratitude, shattering some myths, and validating a simple message: Your appreciation means far more to people than you think.
The study had letter-writers estimate how much the recipient would be surprised by the thank-you note and how much they would appreciate it. Further, they asked how important it was that it used "just the right" words and how articulate they appeared. The letter-writers significantly underestimated how much their letters were appreciated, and how little importance the recipient placed on the wording compared to the sincerity of the message that was sent:
“What we saw is that it only takes a couple minutes to compose letters like these — thoughtful and sincere ones,” says Kumar. “It comes at little cost, but the benefits are larger than people expect.”
So pick up your pen, keyboard, or phone and write that thank-you note.
So, if you've been holding off on sending someone a thank-you note, do not despair. A short, genuine expression of thanks means a lot and can help you feel better, too!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday August 29 2018, @09:06AM (1 child)
... Wall Of Text:
It happens that just about all of my essays, articles, rants and manifestoes are born into this world as simple message board posts. I recently drafted what one reader called a "Very deep" article as a post to my Facebook Wall followed by perhaps fifteen replies.
I have a good friend who's heavily into my writing. When I see each week I bring her anywhere from just one to a half-dozen of my essays. If I don't deliver the goods she's dismayed.
What I'm _really_ stoked about is that she shares my writing with a friend who's also heavily into my work.
My friend and her friend will soon have a three-ring binder for my writing. Each delivery comes ready-for-binding due to my purchase of a modestly heavy duty three hole punch at Office Depot.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday August 29 2018, @11:19AM
Each of these friends is heavily into writing; many of them were fellow Kurons.
Three of them are professional writers: one writes marketing material, another writes a progressive political blogs and writes research papers for the Democratic Party, the third is a journalist.
In my actual experience it would help quite a lot were I to get some sleep before revising it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]