Gratitude for little things can bring happiness

Appreciating daily gestures has the ability to add meaning to the lives of both people and helps the relationship flourish.

US experts at the University of North Carolina studied how couples behave when responding to nice gestures. They found that simply doing something for somebody else does not automatically generate feelings of gratitude.

"Men and women with grateful partners felt more connected to the partner and more satisfied with the romantic relationship," said the authors, writing in the journal Personal Relationships.

"An emotional response of gratitude for 'everyday' interpersonal gestures can be a powerful mechanism for relationship growth."

The authors point out that it is not only big gestures that have an effect. "Events such as one partner planning a celebratory meal when the other partner gets a promotion, taking the children to the zoo so the other partner can have some quiet time, or stopping to pick up the other partner's favourite coffee are each benefits to the recipient," they said. The effects on the relationship were noticed even the day after the gratitude was expressed.

For the research, 67 couples completed nightly diaries for two weeks to record their own and their partner's thoughtful actions, their emotional response and how they felt about the relationship.

All the couples had been together for at least three months and the average age of participants was 25.