gratitude – because it is associated with appraising one’s own
positive outcomes as being due to the intentional, benevolent,
costly, valuable behavior of other people – might also cause
people to view their own lives as more secure, safe, and fulfilling.
In other words, gratitude may produce the sense that one is
surrounded by beneficent causal agents. As a result (we suspect),
gratitude may obviate the need for materialistic striving
as a way of coping with existential insecurity (Kasser, 2002).