Gratitude Project 2024
The Gratitude Project began in Fall 2018 and allowed University of Arizona students, staff and faculty to send a personalized card or email to another Arizona student, staff or faculty member. Individuals are asked to identify those who had a positive impact during the current year or semester, or at any point in their time at the institution. Since inception more than 9,000 notes of thanks have been sent in the University of Arizona Community.
The research on the benefits associated with expressing gratitude is overwhelmingly positive. Gratitude has been linked with improved well-being, higher levels of positive emotions and more resilience in times of stress (Emmons et al, 2019, Emmons & Stern, 2013). Expressing gratitude is not about ignoring difficulties or challenges, but helps individuals identify and appreciate the positives that exist in their life. Expressing gratitude has also been found to help individuals connect to one another, and develop stronger social supports or sense of belonging. In the Surgeon General’s report on loneliness in 2023 regularly expressing gratitude was recommended to build and strengthen relationships with others. In the SSRI Belonging Brief we provide more information on how sense of belonging and loneliness are impacting the student experience.
Why the Gratitude Project?
Regular interventions like a gratitude journal can have ongoing and long-terms positive impacts on well-being and improve positive emotions. Gratitude interventions like sending a note a thanks can have short term positive impact on both the sender and recipient.
Research has also shown that individuals can underestimate the appreciation that others will have for receiving a note of thanks, and overestimate the awkwardness that could be involved (Bono et al., 2022). The Gratitude Project removes some of the concern by institutionalizing gratitude, and making it a campus wide effort.