Rogue Gratitude: When Thankfulness Becomes a Vice

Key points

Gratitude is a virtue, but under certain circumstances, it can also become a vice.

Indiscriminate gratitude can slip into vanity, manipulation, Pollyannaism, or misplaced loyalty.

The goal isn’t to be less grateful, but to be wisely grateful.

As a gratitude researcher, I’m encouraged by its growing popularity in mainstream culture. Most people like gratitude and want to be grateful. And the benefits are undeniable. Grateful people tend to be more psychologically healthy, less lonely , and engage in more positive social behaviors.

But can gratitude become a problem? Far less attention has been paid to its dark side. Yet the idea that a virtue can, under certain circumstances, become a vice shouldn’t surprise us. Aristotle observed that virtue involves doing the right