GRATITUDE

The Paired Statements for Gratitude:

“I have so much in life to be thankful for.
If I had to list everything I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.”.

Figure 1. GRATITUDE espousers

Demographically, what characterizes Gratitude espousers is an over-indexing of females (15% more likely than the population at large), the over 65s (63% over-indexed) and the AB socio-economic group (18% over-indexed). Under-indexing is found amongst males (16% under-index), age group 25-34 (40% under-index) and, slightly, the C2 socio-economic group.

The overall profile of Gratitude espousers suggests a group of people who have taken, or are taking, a pathway through life and have arrived at this point with a clear sense of purpose and what constitutes a meaningful life.

Set-backs simply do not faze them. Rather, it encourages them to take another sweep and try to do better and achieve a better outcome. They will keep going until they achieve their goal. They know that life is more like a long and winding road rather than a straight Roman road. They know the greatest rewards are often just around the corner and that taking the extra step, when others fall by the wayside, is not a chore but a choice, and has the potential to lead to greater understanding of life.

The important thing is that it is their choice. Succeed or fail, win or lose, it will be a learning experience, another chance to see the world as it is – the truth in any situation.

This gives them a grounded confidence to be honest in virtually all circumstances. Unwilling to lie to themselves or be dishonest with others they understand that trust can only come from truth. Their sense of gratitude arises primarily out a deep belief that they are living their lives as truthfully as they can. This makes for a sense of gratitude that gains strength every time they tell their truth – and diminishes every time that they don’t.

They try to think things through rationally when faced with important decisions and, especially actions. This leads them to know why they thought or did something – both the good and not so good. This is the basis for their essentially benign approach to life. They are not prone to ‘hit out’ against things, even when feeling frustrated. They accept life’s ups and downs. What gets them through is their belief that everything will, ultimately, turn out OK.

This combination of an optimistic viewpoint and a love of learning new things is an important source of their gratitude. Life may deal the cards, but the fun is to be had playing their hand.

These people are not tied into a ‘materialist yoke’. Sure, they like the luxuries, if they can get them, and they like to have nice ‘stuff’, but there is nothing obsessive about it. They are not the kind of people who, half way through a purchase, are thinking, “I’ve got one of those, so now I must get one of those!”

Conclusion

Gratitude espousers ‘know who they are’. They believe in themselves, and that gives them the confidence to be trustworthy and to expect the same from others. They have confidence that they can always ‘get through’ life’s ups and downs.


Breaking Gratitude espousers out by the Malow groups shows some interesting differences.

Maslow Group Population (base) % Attribute % Index
Pioneers 37.7 49.1 130
Prospectors 36.8 32.7 89
Settlers 25.5 18.2 71


Figure 2. GRATITUDE espousers - Pioneers

Much of what has been said about Gratitude espousers in general can be applied to the Pioneers who espouse this Attribute. They have a strong sense of their life-purpose and what makes life meaningful. They give and expect to receive honesty and trust.

One of the things they trust is that whatever life throws at them, things will turn out OK. These Pioneers actually enjoy challenges. They see them as situations to discover new possibilities and opportunities. In their view, ‘facts’ are ‘interesting’, but the fun is to be found in thinking about things that can’t be, or haven’t yet been proved. These are the moments when they can find the excitement of learning something new. If something can’t be proved or hasn’t ever happened, they are likely to ask, “What if this was a fact or did actually happen?” They will never find themselves short of ways to learn.

Breakthrough thoughts and behaviours that lead to leaps in human knowledge are often driven by these people. Thinking the unthinkable, asking ‘why’ every time they discover a ‘truth’, is not a planned, programmed response – it is a spontaneous, unplanned response to a new truth. In reality, the truth of a new idea or concept can be unsettling and paradoxical in terms of what came before. But rather than feel threatened by the ‘new’ they feel the gratitude that comes from knowing the truth.

Gratitude doesn’t usually come along making amazing contributions to established fields of knowledge though. A more prosaic source of their gratitude comes from their appreciation of the natural world into which they are born but which, for much of their time, has been taken for granted, even ignored. But it is their powerful sense of aesthetics that crashes their indifference or denial of the wonder of the world around them. A beautiful dawn, sunset or view can stop them dead in their tracks and fill them with awe. Nature, the artist, fills their world with fascinating shapes, colours and sounds from which they can alter their reality on a moment-by-moment basis. They like to collect natural objects, like driftwood, bark and shells, all of which help them connect to the myriad of interlocking systems that existed before they became aware of them and that carry on regardless of their attentions. Fitting into the aesthetic is an intrinsic part of the Pioneer psyche.

Conclusion

Pioneer Gratitude espousers embody this Attribute in Spades. As noted already, they provide almost half of all the general espousal population; a 30% over-index on the representation of Pioneers in the whole population. For them, it’s easy to find things to be grateful for. All the world’s a stage and, for them, the play’s the thing.


Figure 3. GRATITUDE espousers - Prospectors

The only distinct demographic of note is the 32% over-index (versus the whole population) amongst females. Males are correspondingly under-indexed by the appropriate amount.

Prospector espousers of Gratitude see a clear purpose to their lives and what makes it meaningful, which is their ambition to reach, in their view, the highest goal in life – achieving something of lasting importance.

As befits their rather materialistic tendencies, ‘lasting importance’ easily translates to ‘lasting value’.

Lasting value is predicated on others’ evaluations; what society or social reference groups admire or perceive as worth prizing - sources of envy or aspiration. In today’s society, this translates easily into one’s physical appearance and one’s home, both of which are oriented toward the ultimate translation – acquiring and keeping the esteem and admiration of others, and eventually building the basis of their own self-esteem.

These Prospectors have a very ‘can do’ attitude to almost everything. Their optimism is every bit as strong as that of the Pioneer espousers’ but their determination to achieve any and all of their goals is virtually boundless.

Where they live is just another opportunity to exhibit their can-do attitude to create something of lasting value. Their home is not so much where they live as much as it is a habitation that they can display to others; be it a flat, a house, a mansion or even a skyscraper with their name on it, like a former President of the United States. In the life of the Prospector, nothing can bring more gratitude than admiration from others as they display the results their endeavours. One of the most popular television programs in the UK is “Grand Designs” where ‘ordinary people’ create something of lasting value - based on the creation of a dwelling they live, or want to live in. For the Prospector – any Prospector – if there was ever a definition of ‘lasting importance’, this is most assuredly it.

Luckily for society several other factors prevent the ‘grateful Prospectors’ from becoming stereotypical go-getting show-offs. Underneath all this glam and glitter, most of these, primarily female, Prospectors are people open to others’, and their own, emotions. They are sensitive and tend to be good listeners. Engaging with others not only gives them a much better idea of what ‘lasting value’ means to others, but also provides the framework for their own efforts to create it.

Much of the modern world can be attributed to the drives of these people, male and female, to create something that lives on after they die; that sparks both the admiration and the envy of others.

Conclusion

Materialistic, yes, but with a keen sense of what’s important in their lives. When they achieve their goals or acquire the things they need, it gets added to their gratitude list. If they are stymied in their quest to acquire, experience or do what they really desire, it just goes on their long, long bucket list.


Figure 4. GRATITUDE espousers - Settlers

Perhaps the most notable thing about these Settler espousers of Gratitude is that almost half of them are aged 65 and over. In total, that’s a 136% over-index on the number of 65-pluses in the whole population. This places them as from the WWII generation and its immediate aftermath (up until Harold MacMillan, who famously said ‘They’ve never had it so good’). Their attitude – not just the oldies – is that just making it through life is something to be grateful for.

Non-acquisitive is the only Attribute that these Settlers share with the overall Grateful espouser profile. That is, they are not driven by materialistic consumption – MacMillan made his statement before the development of the ‘consumer society’. In fact, their purchases are more likely to be driven by purely functional needs. Grateful Settlers, like all Settlers, inhabit a comforting interior world that was once characterized by a Settler in a focus group years ago as a “small world”. Their aspirations are limited and this leads to them being ‘grateful for small mercies'.

Their approach to life is not based on ambition and a sense of connectedness to a wider world. They much prefer to keep their ship steady and know their place.

Safety and security are their dominant drives, and they are grateful for as much of this as they can get. Some of the manifestations of this can seem quite harsh to others.

National security is a big matter for these Settlers, especially the protection of social order. To which end, they tend to favour maximum retribution against criminals. Rules are rules to these Settlers, and rules should be obeyed.

Threats to their security come in many forms. They believe that children need to be raised with strict discipline – basically to do as they are told; spare the rod and spoil the child. Physical punishment of those who don’t follow the rules is not something they are averse to – up to and including whipping to teach criminals a lesson.

This may seem crazy to the other groups espousing Gratitude. But these Settlers derive satisfaction from keeping their home safe in their small bubble. Their relative lack of social skills – ranking ‘Listening’ and ‘Sensitive’ at 62 and 74 out of 118 factors - starkly contrasts with ‘grateful Prospectors’ who rank the same indicators at 9 and 11 out of 118. This relative lack of empathy helps to create their form of Gratitude. Unaware of or in denial of others’ circumstances, they perceive the world in a very different way and find their limited perceptions satisfying. They are even grateful that they don’t know everything, and they have little desire to know more.

Feeling Gratitude in their lives at this time, they are unlikely to seek to expand their small world. These are not people with a burning ambition to get to the top of the heap. Actually, they are far more likely to think the modern view of ‘success’ is just an illusion, but they are also content to defer to ‘their betters’ – those who are judged to be successful.

This latter orientation - the desire to just fit-in and float along, and not draw attention to themselves - can be seen by others as these Settlers’ redeeming graces. Gratitude in Settlers does not lead to confrontation. Though they may think they want to punish those who threaten their security, they are more likely to defer to others who are more content to deal with confrontation. So, they are not likely to clamour for action on some of their more extreme thoughts. Remember that these are Settlers who feel they have much to be grateful for. Any change to their world is a threat to that state of being. In terms of the other Groups their gratitude might be typified as a resentful gratitude brought on by the desire for a settled life.

Conclusion

These Settler espousers of Gratitude are the exception to the common ideas of ‘being grateful for things in life’, but their ways of thinking are no less valid for all that. Safety and security for themselves, their families, their friends and their country are their drivers.