The role of positive emotion in harmful health behavior: Implications for theory and public health campaigns

This research provides unique insights into the relationship between positive emotions and appetitive risk behaviors, updating the meta-analytic finding that positive emotions serve no protective effects. Specifically, gratitude is proposed as a positive emotion capable of reducing cigarette smoking—a leading cause of preventable death globally. Correlational studies, including nationally representative US samples and an international sample from 87 countries, consistently indicate an association between gratitude and a reduced likelihood of smoking. Experimental studies further confirm gratitude's causal impact. Importantly, these findings reveal a missed opportunity in costly public health campaigns, which seldom evoke gratitude. By emphasizing gratitude's potential role in mitigating appetitive behaviors, this work opens broad avenues for intervention design in public health.