The different flavors of gratitude: A survey of the origins and implications of feeling obligated as a result of being grateful

Gratitude has been conceptualized as a unidimensional construct that is experienced when one approves of another's praiseworthy actions and feels joy for the desirability of the outcome. This study explored the possibility that gratitude is actually composed of two distinct dimensions---unfettered gratitude, as described above, and a more aversive state brought upon by gratitude's link to obligation. Three scales were developed to measure the hypothesized obligation gratitude construct. The associations of the unfettered gratitude dimension were compared to those of the obligation gratitude dimension. Obligation gratitude was positively correlated with fear, non-religiosity, and marginally, with being male. It was negatively correlated with awe, social desirability and gratitude for benefits not derived from others (e.g., nature, luck). Unfettered gratitude was positively correlated with religiosity, being female, positive affect, and social desirability. Further conceptual and psychometric work is needed to discern if obligation gratitude is a distinct type of gratitude.