A New Study Busts All Your Excuses for Not Saying Thank You More

If you know anything at all about the science of happiness, you know that gratitude is great for our wellbeing. It rewires your brain for positivity, boosts your energy levels, and if your thankfulness is directed at someone else, makes the receiving party feel great. All of this is both research-backed and totally common sense, so why don’t we actually get out there and express more gratitude?

One answer is bad habits. It’s all too easy to forget to count our blessings (being around negative people doesn’t help), but a new study recently published in Psychological Science suggests that inertia is only part of the story.

Apparently, we also overestimate how awkward saying thank you really is and underestimate how much joy it will bring the other person. If you knew how happy saying thank you would make people, you’d probably do more of it.