Past research has provided abundant evidence for the positive impacts of gratitude on individuals and society. However, based on the social function of gratitude, which is proposed to be personal relationship promotion, some negative effects of gratitude may exist, especially when the needs of personal relationship promotion and moral norm obedience are in conflict. The current studies investigated whether gratitude leads individuals to violate moral norms for their benefactors and characterized its underlying psychological mechanisms. Scenario-based and laboratory-based results from a series of six studies (N = 663) showed that gratitude increases individuals' moral violations (lying and lowering due punishment) when the violation protects their benefactors from harm. Serial multiple mediation analyses and computational models further demonstrated the crucial roles of relationship-building tendency towards the benefactors and harm avoidance on behalf of the benefactors in the gratitude-induced moral violation. These findings deepen the understanding of gratitude and gratitude-induced behaviour.

过去的研究为感谢对个人和社会的积极影响提供了丰富的证据。但是，基于感恩的社会功能（建议为促进人际关系），可能存在一些负面影响，尤其是当促进人际关系和道德规范服从的需求冲突时。当前的研究调查了感激之情是否会导致个人为其捐助者违反道德规范，并表征其潜在的心理机制。一系列六项研究（N = 663）的基于情景和实验室的结果表明，感恩会增加个人的道德违规行为（说谎和降低应有的惩罚），因为这种侵犯行为会保护其恩人免受伤害。系列多重调解分析和计算模型进一步证明了建立关系对受益人和代表受益人的伤害回避在感恩诱导的道德侵犯中的关键作用。这些发现加深了对感恩和感恩行为的理解。