Saying "thanks" keeps you close to people you care about.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—You likely feel thankful toward certain people in your life. Maybe your parents, for raising you right. Or your spouse or significant other, for putting up with you all these years. Or your best friend, for all the great advice she’s given you, and for never judging you harshly. Well, expressing that gratitude is not only a thoughtful thing to do, new research finds doing so can actually strengthen your relationships with the people you're close to. And the power of gratitude affects the person giving the thanks well as the one on the receiving end.

THE DETAILS: As recently reported in the journal Psychological Science, researchers measured the effect of expressing gratitude on communal strength, which they defined as “the degree of felt responsibility for a partner’s welfare.” Using surveys, the researchers asked participants about a relationship with either a romantic partner or close friend. The researchers looked at how expressing gratitude can affect a relationship over time. It strengthened it. They also examined whether it was enough to simply feel grateful, or if gratefulness had to be verbalized in order to strengthen the relationship. They found that gratitude had to be verbalized.

WHAT IT MEANS: The study confirmed the importance of saying thank you, but also uncovered something that was less expected. In past studies, showing gratitude improved relationships because the recipient of gratitude felt better about the relationship. This study found that expressing gratitude worked because the person doing the thanking felt better about the relationship.