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Emotion
Warm Thanks: Gratitude Expression Facilitates Social
Affiliation in New Relationships via Perceived Warmth
Lisa A. Williams and Monica Y. Bartlett
Online First Publication, August 11, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000017
CITATION
Williams, L. A., & Bartlett, M. Y. (2014, August 11). Warm Thanks: Gratitude Expression
Facilitates Social Affiliation in New Relationships via Perceived Warmth. Emotion. Advance
online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000017
Warm Thanks: Gratitude Expression Facilitates Social Affiliation in New
Relationships via Perceived Warmth
Lisa A. Williams
University of New South Wales Monica Y. Bartlett
Gonzaga University
Recent theorizing on the nature and function of gratitude (the find-remind-and-bind theory; Algoe, 2012)
stipulates that expressing gratitude should serve to alert previously unacquainted peers to the potential for
a high-quality social bond (i.e., a find function). Although the logic of this premise is supported by extant
research, it has not, as yet, been tested empirically. In the current study, participants received a note from
a previously unacquainted peer that contained an expression of gratitude (or did not) with regard to prior
benefits provided by the participant. After providing ratings of the peer and ostensibly completing the
study, participants were given an opportunity to spontaneously give their contact information to the peer,
which served as a behavioral measure of affiliation. In line with the proposed find function of gratitude
expressions, recipients of expressions of gratitude were more likely to extend the effort to continue the
relationship with the novel peer by providing that peer with a means to contact them. This experiment
also provided evidence that perceptions of interpersonal warmth (e.g., friendliness, thoughtfulness) serve
as the mechanism via which gratitude expressions facilitate affiliation: insofar as gratitude expressions
signaled interpersonal warmth of the expresser, they prompted investment in the burgeoning social bond.
As such, these findings provide the first empirical evidence regarding 1 of the 3 central premises of the
find-remind-and-bind theory of gratitude (Algoe, 2012) in the context of novel relationships.
Keywords: affiliation, emotion expression, find-remind-and-bind theory, gratitude, interpersonal warmth
The past 15 years have seen a surge in research examining the
nature and function of gratitude. From subjective wellbeing to
health, prosocial engagement to relationship satisfaction, the ro-
bust message stemming from this research is that this emotion
confers a variety of benefits to individuals, relationships, and
society (see McCullough, Kimeldorf, & Cohen, 2008; Wood, Froh,
& Geraghty, 2010 for reviews). A recent theory proposed to
integrate such findings is the find-remind-and-bind theory of grat-
itude (Algoe, 2012), which highlights the role of gratitude in
facilitating initiation of new relationships (finding), orientation to
existing relationships (reminding), and maintenance of and invest-
ment in these relationships (binding).
Although the find-remind-and-bind theory carves out space for
the role of expressions of gratitude, this aspect of the theory has
received the least empirical attention. In fact, in calling for future
research, Algoe (2012) wrote, “The best tests of the theory would
involve testing whether a thanked benefactor spontaneously enacts
prorelationship behaviors other than those reinforced by the
thanks, and which couldn’t easily be characterized as repayment
(e.g., affiliation)” (p. 465). The present experiment represents the
first known answer to this call by testing whether expressions of
gratitude prompt affiliation in the context of novel relationships.
As such, the present experiment complements extant work on the
remind function of gratitude expressions in ongoing relationships
(e.g., Algoe, Fredrickson, & Gable, 2013; A. Gordon, Impett,
Kogan, Oveis, & Keltner, 2012; C. Gordon, Arnette, & Smith,
2011; Lambert & Fincham, 2011).
In the present experiment, we directly tested the hypothesis that
expressions of gratitude will facilitate affiliation with a previously
unacquainted peer (i.e., enact a find function). That is, observing
an expression of gratitude should promote a desire to build a social
relationship with the expresser. This logic draws from a consider-
able body of research establishing that feeling gratitude prompts
behaviors desirable in a future relationship partner (e.g., increased
prosociality, decreased aggression, and increased relationship in-
vestment; Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; Bartlett, Condon, Cruz, Bau-
mann, & DeSteno, 2012; DeSteno, Bartlett, Baumann, Williams,
& Dickens, 2010; DeWall, Lambert, Pond, Kashdan, & Fincham,
2012; Tsang, 2006). Thus, in the absence of prior experience with
an individual, an expression of gratitude could provide a valuable
signal about the expresser as a future social partner.
In light of this, we examined one mechanism by which a
gratitude expression may signal that an expresser would make a
high-quality social partner: perceived interpersonal warmth. Along
with competence, interpersonal warmth is one of two dimensions
of person perception (see Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2008; Wojciszke,
2005 for reviews), which subsequently guides approach and avoid-
ance (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007). Perceptions of warmth are
driven by inferences about cooperation versus competition (i.e.,
individuals who are cooperative, and not competitive, are per-
Lisa A. Williams, School of Psychology, University of New South
Wales; Monica Y. Bartlett, Department of Psychology, Gonzaga Univer-
sity.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lisa A.
Williams, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney,
NSW 2052 Australia. E-mail: lwilliams@unsw.edu.au
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Emotion © 2014 American Psychological Association
2014, Vol. 14, No. 4, 000 1528-3542/14/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000017
1
ceived as warm; Russell & Fiske, 2008) and hence are relevant to
decisions regarding affiliation with novel partners.
Notably, and as described above, grateful individuals are inter-
personally warm. To the extent that emotion expressions inform
person inferences (e.g., Hareli & Hess, 2010; Knutson, 1996), an
expression of gratitude should provide a cue that the expresser is
interpersonally warm, and hence foster development of the poten-
tial social bond.
To test this idea, we employed an experimental design in which
participants received a note expressing gratitude, or a note not
expressing gratitude, from a previously unacquainted peer. We
measured not only participants’ affiliation intentions but also ac-
tual affiliative behaviors toward this novel person. Critically, we
measured participants’ perceptions of the peer’s interpersonal
warmth. In line with the find-remind-and-bind theory (Algoe,
2012), and the logic detailed above, we predicted that participants
who received an expression of gratitude should affiliate more with
the peer, and that this effect should be mediated by perceptions of
the interpersonal warmth of the expresser (and not by perceptions
of competence).
Method
Participants
Seventy undergraduate students (54 females, M
age
⫽19.11, age
range ⫽18–26) participated in partial fulfillment of course credit.
1
Participants were randomly assigned to the expressed gratitude
condition (n⫽30) or the control condition (n⫽40). We have
reported analyses with the single suspicious participant removed.
Inclusion of data from this participant does not yield any substan-
tive changes in the nature of the results.
Procedure
Participants were recruited into the study via a bulletin board
with a notice for a study titled: “A pilot study for a program that
would pair college-bound high school students with college men-
tors.” This wording served to reinforce the veracity of the cover
story.
Building on the paradigm used by Grant and Gino (2010), we
created a context in which expression of gratitude could be ma-
nipulated in an ecologically valid manner. The experiment took
place across two laboratory sessions. In the first session, partici-
pants were familiarized with an ostensible program being piloted
by the university’s admissions department. Participants were told
that, as part of that program, current university students would
provide comments on a high school student mentee’s college
application writing sample. Participants were asked to spend 15
minutes providing suggestions on a purported writing sample.
During the second session, one week later, all participants
received a handwritten note purportedly from the mentee whose
writing sample they had commented upon. The content of this note
varied by condition. Text in italics appeared only in the expressed
gratitude condition: “I received your feedback through the editing
program. Thank you SO much for all the time and effort you put
into doing that for me! I hope to use the paper for my college
applications.”
After receiving the note, participants completed questionnaires
assessing their impression of and affiliation intentions toward the
mentee. Specifically, as a manipulation check, participants rated
the degree to which they perceived the mentee to be appreciative
of their comments. Participants also rated the mentee’s level of
interpersonal warmth (friendliness, thoughtfulness, positivity, po-
liteness, and likableness; ␣⫽.82) and the mentee’s competence in
writing (grammar, style, vocabulary, and level; ␣⫽.74). With
regard to affiliation intentions, participants indicated their willing-
ness to affiliate with the mentee (introduce the mentee to their
friends, host the mentee for a weekend campus visit, meet with the
mentee before high-school classes [at 8:30am], communicate with
the mentee via email; ␣⫽.85). Note that these particular behav-
iors were chosen to represent active efforts to invest in the rela-
tionship and cannot be construed as reciprocal exchange. All
ratings were completed on 7-point scales anchored appropriately
for each item (e.g., 1 ⫽not at all,7⫽extremely). Last, partici-
pants completed a demographic questionnaire.
The computer then informed participants that the study was
complete and instructed participants to notify the experimenter in
order to receive a participation receipt. At this point, the experi-
menter casually mentioned that the organizers of the pilot program
had provided notecards that mentors could fill out as a “welcome
note” which would be delivered to the mentee if admitted to the
university. The experimenter announced the mentee’s program ID
number, and pointed out a large envelope where the participant
could deposit the note, if she or he chose to write one, emphasizing
that it was optional. The experimenter then departed the room to
obtain a participation receipt for the participant.
2
Whether the
participant left his or her contact information in the note to the
mentee constituted the behavioral measure of affiliation.
Results
Examination of the manipulation check, interpersonal ratings,
affiliation intentions, and note-writing data did not reveal signifi-
cant differences between male and female participants. We there-
fore collapsed across gender in all analyses. Means and standard
deviations for ratings appear in Table 1.
In support of the success of the gratitude expression manipula-
tion, participants who received the note expressing gratitude rated
the student as significantly more appreciative than participants
who received the control note, t(67) ⫽10.52, p⬍.001, d⫽2.56
[1.91:3.21].
3
Participants who received the note expressing gratitude also
rated the student as significantly higher in interpersonal warmth
than participants who received the control note, t(67) ⫽5.36, p⬍
.001, d⫽1.31 [.78:1.83]. Importantly, these effects were limited
1
These data were collected under the rule that we obtain at least 30
participants per condition. This rule is consistent with sample sizes used in
similar behavioral studies in our labs (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; Williams
& DeSteno, 2008). We have reported all measures as well as all statistical
analyses undertaken on those measures.
2
As a result of experimenter error, 8 participants were not given the note
writing opportunity before departing the laboratory. Data from these par-
ticipants were excluded from analyses including the contact information
variable.
3
The confidence intervals reported here and for other ttests represent
95% confidence intervals calculated around each respective effect size d
(Smithson, 2003).
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2WILLIAMS AND BARTLETT
to judgments on this dimension; participants in both conditions
rated the student’s writing competence equivalently, t(67) ⫽0.98,
p⫽.33, d⫽.23 [-.24:.72]. Of key import to the find hypothesis,
participants who received the gratitude note reported higher inten-
tions to affiliate with them as compared to participants who re-
ceived the control note, t(67) ⫽2.69, p⫽.009, d⫽.65 [.16:1.14].
Notes were coded as to whether they contained contact infor-
mation (i.e., e-mail address or phone number). The four partici-
pants who did not write a note, who were all in the control
condition, were coded as not having left contact information. An
analysis of the frequency of leaving contact information by con-
dition showed that more participants left their contact information
when they received the gratitude expression note (68.0%) than
when they received the control note (41.7%),
2
(1) ⫽4.10, p⫽
.04, ⌽⫽.26, BCa 95%CI of ⌽[.05:.49].
To examine the causal role that perceptions of warmth played in
affiliation intention and leaving contact information, structural
equation modeling was employed using maximum likelihood es-
timation in AMOS (Version 22.0). The full model is depicted in
Figure 1. Note that the paths between expression condition and
affiliation intention, between expression condition and leaving
contact information, and also between interpersonal warmth and
leaving contact information were nonsignificant. When these paths
were trimmed from the model, model fit met accepted standards
(Kline, 2005),
2
(3) ⫽2.41, p⫽.49, SRMR ⫽.06, CFI ⫽1.00,
RMSEA ⫽0.00, 90%CI of RMSEA [.00:.20]. In the trimmed
model, all paths were significant, s⬎.41, ps⬍.001.
To further examine the mechanism underlying the link between
expression of gratitude and affiliation, two indirect effect analyses
were conducted using a bootstrapping procedure (Hayes, 2013)
with 10,000 resamples. Note that indirect effects do not require
that the respective direct effect be significant (Hayes, 2009). The
95% confidence interval (CI) around the indirect effect of gratitude
expression on affiliation intention through perceived warmth did
not contain zero [.04:1.15] (point estimate ⫽.53). Likewise, the
95% CI of the indirect effect of gratitude expression on leaving
contact information through perceived warmth did not contain zero
[.01:2.23] (point estimate ⫽.86). These results provide evidence
that the observed increased affiliation (intention and behavior)
directed toward grateful individuals is driven by higher percep-
tions of interpersonal warmth resulting from the expression of
gratitude.
Discussion
These findings represent the first known evidence that expres-
sions of gratitude facilitate affiliation among previously unac-
quainted peers and establish support for a mechanism of this
effect: perceptions of interpersonal warmth. Insofar as a gratitude
expression signaled interpersonal warmth of the expresser, recip-
ients of gratitude expressions extended the effort to continue the
relationship with their mentee by giving the mentee a means to
contact them. Supporting the uniqueness of this mechanism, ex-
pressions of gratitude did not alter perceptions of competence. A
key strength of these findings is that they captured actual affiliative
behavior in the context of an experimental design: not only did
participants intend to act more affiliatively toward gratitude ex-
pressers, they also engaged more frequently in an objective affili-
ative behavior: leaving their contact details.
These findings contribute substantially to the field’s understand-
ing of when and why expressions of gratitude encourage initiation
of social relationships, thus building upon existing research on
expressions of gratitude in ongoing relationships. Further, these
findings provide support for an as-yet-untested premise of the
find-remind-and-bind theory (Algoe, 2012), that is, that gratitude
expressions serve a finding function among previously unac-
quainted individuals.
We wish to highlight that expressions of gratitude do more than
reinforce a desired behavior. Grant and Gino (2010) demonstrated
that receiving an expression of gratitude for editing an essay (or
making call center calls) motivated participants to help edit an-
other essay (or make more calls). Such findings are open to the
interpretation that receiving an expression of gratitude positively
reinforces the benefactor’s behavior but does not in fact build the
benefactor-recipient relationship. The findings from our study,
however, show that expressions of gratitude specifically motivate
Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations of Rated Constructs
by Condition
Expressed
gratitude
condition Control condition
Variable MSDMSD
Appreciation 6.10 1.18 2.98 1.25
Interpersonal warmth 5.52 .79 4.45 .84
Writing capability 4.32 .76 4.13 .80
Affiliation intention 4.64 1.03 3.81 1.41
Figure 1. Full path model depicting the relationship between expressions of gratitude, interpersonal warmth,
and affiliation intention and behavior (leaving contact information). Path estimates reflect standardized values.
Expression of gratitude was dummy coded as 0 ⫽no expression control condition and 1 ⫽expressed gratitude
condition.
ⴱ
p⬍.05.
ⴱⴱ
p⬍.001.
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3
GRATITUDE EXPRESSION FACILITATES AFFILIATION
affiliation (e.g., leaving a welcome note with one’s contact infor-
mation on it) with the expresser, which cannot be construed as
simple reinforcement for editing an essay. Such a motivational role
goes beyond reinforcement and is in line with the premises of the
find-remind-and-bind theory.
These findings fuel a number of future research directions. One
intriguing possibility is that, insofar as expressions of gratitude
signal interpersonal warmth, witnesses to the expression of grati-
tude should also infer the worth of affiliating with the expresser.
This is an important question as ever-more interpersonal commu-
nication, and indeed thanks-saying, occurs in public arenas (e.g.,
Twitter, Facebook).
Further, it will be important to explore the precise role of
interpersonal warmth in the gratitude expression–affiliation link.
That is, all expressions of gratitude need not be warm. In fact,
expressions of gratitude that lack warmth—“cold gratitude”—may
fail to promote affiliation. An intriguing avenue for future research
will be to establish whether warmth alone can promote affiliation
(i.e., is warmth sufficient?) and whether gratitude expressions that
lack warmth promote affiliation (i.e., is warmth necessary?). We
expect that warmth is indeed sufficient in general cases of potential
affiliation (Russell & Fiske, 2008). In the context of expressions of
gratitude specifically, warmth should also be necessary.
Although these findings carry a variety of strengths (i.e., mea-
surement of behavior in addition to intention, an experimental
design), a number of limitations should be acknowledged. A
written format was utilized for the manipulation of expression of
gratitude. Although we believe that this is important for experi-
mental control and purity of manipulation, we also recognize that
it is important for future research to establish that the same patterns
of findings are observed when the expression of gratitude is
delivered face-to-face. In addition, we suggest that future research
deploy a variety of control conditions (e.g., expression of positive
emotion other than gratitude) in addition to that used here (i.e., no
positive emotional content).
We acknowledge that other mechanisms have received em-
pirical support in research on gratitude expressions (i.e., per-
ceived responsiveness and communal strength; Algoe et al.,
2013; Lambert et al., 2010). We postulate that interpersonal
warmth is a broader construct that likely subsumes perceived
responsiveness and communal strength. In fact, many of the
items used to assess these constructs would not be suitable in
the context of novel relationship partners such as created in the
current study (cf. Kleiman, Kashdan, Monfort, Machell &
Goodman, in press). Future research will need to establish the
specificity of perceived responsiveness and communal strength
as mechanisms for expressed gratitude in the context of ongoing
relationships as well as establish ways to test these specific
mechanisms in the context of novel relationships.
These findings are the first to show that expressions of
gratitude directly shape affiliation between previously unac-
quainted individuals. They also provide evidence for the mech-
anism of this effect: expressions of gratitude promote affiliation
among strangers to the extent that they signal the interpersonal
warmth of the expresser. As is the case with many colloquial-
isms, we suggest that there is some truth to the phrase ‘warm
thanks.’
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Received February 1, 2014
Revision received June 12, 2014
Accepted June 22, 2014 䡲
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5
GRATITUDE EXPRESSION FACILITATES AFFILIATION
