Whether it's sitting down with family for Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings, finding an iPhone 5 under the Christmas tree or avoiding the Big One so far, there's much to be thankful for during the holidays.

At UC Berkeley, however, a group of researchers thinks about gratitude year-round.

Formed in 2001, the Greater Good Science Center is dedicated to unpacking the neuroscience and sociology behind traits such as altruism, compassion and empathy.

The goal is not only to understand how gratitude works, but also to build a healthier, kinder society, said Dacher Keltner, the center's faculty director and a UC Berkeley psychology professor.

"The U.S. underperforms in terms of the well-being of children, the well-being of adults and the physical health of children and adults," he said. "We also have one of the most individualistic, self-focused societies in human history. And I put those two facts together."

Thanks to a $3.1 million grant recently awarded by the center, 14 researchers nationwide are studying various aspects of gratitude, from its role in initiating friendships to its effects on children's socializing.

And last month, the center launched Thnx4.org, an online journal where visitors explain what they're thankful for and researchers analyze their responses to understand gratitude's influence.

A grateful critic

Not everyone thinks thankfulness deserves this much thought.

"Take some time in November, and every other month, to remind yourself of things you're grateful for," wrote Steven E.F. Brown, a San Francisco Business Times columnist, in November. "You'll be a bit happier and those around you will be a bit happier, too, and the world will be a bit nicer to live in. I don't need $3.1 million and a database to tell you that."

The researchers defend their work by saying it may be about feeling good, but it's far from light and fluffy.

In groundbreaking experiments over the last decade, UC Davis Professor Robert Emmons and University of Miami Professor Michael McCullough directed people to write weekly journal entries of five things for which they were grateful. After two months, the journal writers felt more optimistic, exercised more and had fewer physical problems, compared with a control group. Other studies have linked gratefulness to stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure.

Now, 14 researchers, including three in California, plan to tease out the biological and physiological nuances of the impact of gratitude with a $3.1 million grant awarded in August by the John Templeton Foundation, an outside philanthropy group. The grant is part of a three-year project, Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude, in collaboration with UC Davis.

At UCSF, Wendy Berry Mendes, an associate professor of emotion, is looking at thankfulness on a microscopic level. Her studies will revolve around biomarkers, or early biological signs of disease, and try to answer the question: "Do positive emotions like gratitude influence and alter underlying neurobiology related to health?"

The 'love hormone'

In one of her lab experiments, subjects will be put in a situation where they will be helped by an experimenter. Before they are helped, they will inhale a spray of either a placebo or oxytocin, a hormone best known as the "love hormone." More precisely, it amplifies a person's approach to socializing, whether with a lover or an enemy, Mendes said.

Mendes will look for neurobiological changes in the oxytocin-heightened subjects, such as in their hormones, behavior and perception of the experimenter.

In another study, as adults will go through their normal daily routine, researchers will periodically send them text messages asking about their sense of social connection or isolation at the moment. Subjects will also wear special shirts that track changes in their autonomic nervous system, which both regulates internal organs and takes over in "fight-or-flight" situations.

"We're going to utilize this shirt ... (and) link the autonomic nervous system to experiences with others: experiencing and recognizing gratitude, social connections formed with others, the extent they feel gratitude," Mendes said.

Gratitude could even have implications for heart health, said Laura Redwine, an assistant psychiatry professor at UC San Diego. She plans to study that connection in 100 patients who are at high risk for heart failure.

Overall health

After volunteers answer questionnaires about their levels of gratitude, researchers will spend a year measuring their psychological and cardiovascular health and overall health habits. In another study, 80 high-risk patients will keep journals of five things for which they are thankful, and researchers will examine their health before and after their journaling.

"Our hypothesis is that they're going to be closely linked: Increasing gratitude is going to reduce psychological distress, increase well-being and improve their health-related behaviors, and we think that it might reduce inflammation as well," Redwine said.

Gratitude isn't just about being thankful for receiving - it's also about giving. Naomi Eisenberger, a UCLA assistant psychology professor, hopes to better understand that connection in yet another study.

Like in Redwine's research, the subjects in Eisenberger's study will keep "gratitude journals." But they'll focus on their own expressions of thankfulness, from showing affection to helping a stranger.

Eisenberger will track changes in their brain circuitry and inflammation, an immune response that can lead to chronic diseases in large amounts.

Given the flood of self-help books, apps and seminars out there, it's tempting to be skeptical of gratitude research, Eisenberger acknowledged. But the act of appreciation, she said, is more complicated than saying "thanks."

"The assumption is that if you increase gratitude, you're going to be happier and healthier. There's all these big promises. But the research isn't that far along yet," she said. "In that way, people have a lot of assumptions without really knowing for sure what gratitude is doing."
