A two-week gratitude diary didn't clearly make students more keen to study

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   84 Japanese university students, about 22 years old on average. The main results count only the 40 who did their daily tasks on time. That was 22 in the diary group and 18 in the other group.

2. 02

   What they did

   The diary group wrote up to 5 short notes about things they felt grateful for, 6 days a week for 2 weeks. Both groups rated their stress, sleep and mood every day on an online slider.

3. 03

   What happened

   After two weeks the two groups did not clearly differ in how keen they were to study. The diary group's own scores rose over the two weeks, mostly because they felt less pointless about studying. The authors say this change did not show up when all the students were counted.

What the study found

1. No difference

   A daily gratitude diary for two weeks didn't clearly make students more keen to study than just rating their day.

   • Action: Do happiness-building exercisestested
   • Rule: Every dayused

   Small randomised trial of 84 Japanese university students · vs students who only rated their day · they rated themselves · ⚠ only counted people who finished; summary claims more than the results show

Source