Unravel a Knot: Exploring Double Edged Effects of Gratitude Mindset on Social Behaviors

While abundant evidence supports gratitude’s positive functions, recent findings have also revealed its potential to trigger aggressive behaviors. However, existing theories struggle to fully explain this apparent paradox. To address this gap, we introduce the construct of the gratitude mindset and explore its paradoxical impact on social behaviors. Study 1 (N = 221) employed an experiment to verify the distinct effect of the gratitude mindset on altruistic and aggressive behavior. Based on a three-wave survey, Study 2 (N = 462) revealed that a gratitude-is-enhancing mindset (GIEM) was positively associated with altruistic behavior and negatively associated with aggressive behavior, whereas a gratitude-is-inhibiting mindset (GIIM) was positively associated with aggressive behavior and negatively associated with altruistic behavior. Moreover, moral imagination partially mediated the effects of GIEM on altruistic behavior and aggressive behavior; moral disengagement partially mediated the effects of GIIM on altruistic behavior and aggressive behavior. These findings suggest that the gratitude mindset has both theoretical and practical relevance for understanding social behavior.