Grateful for What and Whom? How Gratitude List Content Varies and Is Associated With Affective Responses

A gratitude list activity, whereby one recalls and writes down things they are grateful for, is a well-studied intervention known to confer an immediate and even prolonged boost in well-being. However, the specific content people reflect on, and how it relates to affective evaluations and the impact of the intervention, remains underexplored. Using data from a global online study ( N = 19,265), we applied natural language processing to examine the content of gratitude lists, identifying 16 thematic clusters, with the most common one focused on social relationships. Next, we examined and found various sociodemographic and psychological differences in people’s gratitude list content. Further, mentioning themes related to family or nature was associated with greater increases in positivity following the activity. Overall, our findings highlight individual differences in what people naturally think of during this popular intervention and suggest opportunities for personalized modifications to enhance adherence to and effectiveness of the intervention.