Does a gratitude practice work? Small, real, and oversold
A gratitude habit gives most people a genuine but small lift in wellbeing — a 2025 meta-analysis of nearly 25,000 people put the average effect at a modest 0.19 — and its unique benefits are probably overstated.
Keeping a gratitude practice — listing what you are thankful for, writing a thank-you letter — gives most people a small, real lift in wellbeing, but one far smaller than the self-help industry implies, with unique benefits that are probably overstated [s1][s2]. A 2025 meta-analysis pooling 145 papers and 24,804 people across 28 countries put the average effect on wellbeing at a modest Hedges' g of 0.19 [s1].
This article describes published research. It is not medical or psychological advice.
How big is the effect
The largest and most recent synthesis is unusually broad: a preregistered meta-analysis of 145 papers, 163 samples and 727 effect sizes, covering 24,804 participants from 28 countries [s1]. Gratitude interventions produced small overall increases in wellbeing, with a Hedges' g of 0.19 (95% CI, 0.15–0.22) [s1]. In effect-size terms that is a nudge, not a transformation.
The details temper the enthusiasm further. The effect looked bigger under specific conditions — when the outcome was measured as positive affect, when several types of gratitude exercise were combined, and in randomised controlled trials [s1]. The average held up against tests for publication bias and influential outliers, so the small size is not an artefact of a few weak studies; it is the signal [s1].
Bigger than nothing, smaller than the hype
An earlier and more skeptical synthesis reached a similar verdict from a different angle. It pulled together 38 studies and 282 effect sizes, running 56 separate meta-analyses that compared gratitude exercises against neutral, negative and positive control activities, at both post-intervention and delayed follow-up [s2]. Gratitude interventions improved some outcomes, including happiness, but left others untouched [s2]. The authors' bottom line is the sentence worth carrying: gratitude's unique benefits "may be overemphasized in the literature" [s2].
That is the crux, and it is a general problem for feel-good self-help. Feeling better after writing down good things is easy to demonstrate; showing that gratitude specifically outperforms simply doing another pleasant, active exercise — rather than just being more pleasant than a neutral chore — is much harder, and it is exactly where the measured advantage thins [s2]. The strongest comparison a study can make is against an equally engaging positive activity, and against that bar gratitude's edge is modest at best [s2].
Does it help your body or your sleep?
Claims that gratitude lowers blood pressure or fixes sleep run ahead of the evidence. A systematic review restricted to randomised trials with physical-health outcomes found 19 eligible studies [s3]. The most promising signal was for sleep: subjective sleep quality improved in 5 of 8 studies that measured it [s3]. Improvements in blood pressure, glycaemic control, asthma control and eating behaviour each appeared — but in only the single study that tested each, and inflammation markers were mixed (1 of 2) [s3]. Most studies carried some risk-of-bias concerns, and the review concluded it is too early to draw firm conclusions about gratitude's effects on physical health [s3].
How to read it
Gratitude sits with the other accessible wellbeing practices this site has weighed: a real but modest benefit, often no larger than a well-chosen active alternative. That matches the broader picture from a network meta-analysis of wellbeing interventions and from close looks at journaling and affirmations. The gap between that quiet reality and the confident marketing is itself a product of the wellness industry's commercial incentives, which reward a bold promise over an accurate one.
What to take from it
A gratitude practice does something — a small, genuine boost to wellbeing, and a plausible edge for sleep [s1][s3]. What it does not do is match the outsized claims made for it; across the best evidence its unique advantage over other pleasant activities is small and, for physical health, largely unproven [s2][s3]. As a cheap, low-risk habit it is easy to justify; as a cure-all it is oversold.
Sources
- A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025-07-08
- Using Gratitude to Promote Positive Change: A Series of Meta-Analyses Investigating the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions — Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2017-05-30
- A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors — Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2020-06-03
Sources
- A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , July 8, 2025
- Using Gratitude to Promote Positive Change: A Series of Meta-Analyses Investigating the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions — Basic and Applied Social Psychology , May 30, 2017
- A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors — Journal of Psychosomatic Research , June 3, 2020
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