Hypnosis for resilience

Does gratitude practice actually work?

Yes, a little — and there is now a very large answer to that question. Researchers pooled 145 studies covering nearly 25,000 people in 28 countries.

Gratitude practice produced a small but consistent lift in wellbeing. A real nudge, not a transformation.

• 145 studies, 24,804 people, 28 countries
• A small, consistent improvement in wellbeing
• Not better than other deliberately positive activities

Worth knowing: The same analysis found gratitude interventions were not significantly different from other positively valenced activities.

So the gain may come from deliberately doing something positive, rather than from gratitude specifically.

The authors also note the search covered English-language studies only, found some evidence of small-sample and selection bias, and is limited to the 28 countries included.

The exact wording and figures

Pooling 145 papers, 163 samples and 727 effect sizes from 24,804 participants across 28 countries, gratitude interventions produced a small overall increase in well-being (Hedges' g = 0.19, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.22, P < 0.001).

A meta-analysis pools the results of many separate studies to find the overall pattern, which is why the numbers are small and the sample is huge.

Choi H, Cha Y, McCullough ME, Coles NA, Oishi S (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. PNAS.
open access (CC BY-NC-ND)

What happened when it was tested as an app

A 2025 trial put a three-week gratitude app in front of university students, with five daily exercises including a guided meditation. For the average student it changed nothing measurable.

For the students who started out struggling, it made a clear difference.

• 93 students, three weeks, five daily exercises
• Across everyone: no measurable effect
• Among those who began with moderate-to-severe symptoms: a clear improvement

Worth knowing: The authors are direct about the limits. The study "had a small sample size with a relatively homogenous sample population". Also, "study dropout in the gratitude intervention group was relatively high".

And "there was no long-term follow-up on well-being outcomes after the intervention".

The exact wording and figures

In a randomised controlled trial of a three-week app-based gratitude programme with 93 university students, there was no significant effect across the full sample (Cohen d = 0.16, P = .46).

In the subsample who began with moderate-to-severe symptoms (n = 56), the intervention group improved significantly (Cohen d = -0.68, P = .04).

One trial, not a body of evidence — and it tested a gratitude app, not this session.

Fuller C, Marin-Dragu S, Iyer RS, Meier SM (2025). A Mobile App-Based Gratitude Intervention's Effect on Mental Well-Being in University Students. JMIR mHealth and uHealth.
open access (CC BY 4.0)