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Jul 16, 2007

"It is gratitude that enables us to receive and it is gratitude that motivates us to return the goodness that we have been given. In short, it is gratitude that enables us to be fully human." --Robert A. Emmons

The Power of Paying it Forward

Because so much of human life is about giving, receiving, and repaying, gratitude is a pivotal concept for our social interactions. The famed sociologist Georg Simmel declared that gratitude is "the moral memory of mankind." If every grateful action, he went on to say, were suddenly eliminated, society would crumble. After years of ignoring gratitude -- perhaps because it appears, on the surface, to be a very obvious emotion, lacking in interesting complications -- researchers have found that gratitude contributes powerfully to human health, happiness, and social connection. Robert A. Emmons, a psychologist who teaches at the University of California at Davis, lends insight into the science of gratitude, and how it enables us to become more fully human.