Gratitude promotes well-being, but people may not express it even when they feel it. A core aspect of rational behavior is that people make decisions based on the expected value of their actions. While acting on expectations may be rational, the choices one makes may not be optimal if those expectations are misguided. Because people underestimate the benefit and overestimate the cost of expressing gratitude, miscalibrated predictions can create a misplaced barrier to gratitude expression. These mistaken beliefs about interpersonal interactions stem partly from a perspective-based asymmetry between actors and targets. The propensity to undervalue one's positive impact on others may reflect a broader tendency that undermines prosociality in daily life — to the detriment of one's own, and others', well-being.

感恩可以促进幸福，但人们即使感受到它也可能不会表达出来。理性行为的一个核心方面是人们根据他们行为的预期价值做出决定。虽然按照期望行事可能是理性的，但如果这些期望被误导，则做出的选择可能不是最优的。由于人们低估了表达感激的好处并高估了成本，因此错误校准的预测可能会为感激表达造成错误的障碍。这些关于人际交往的错误信念部分源于行动者和目标之间基于视角的不对称。低估自己对他人的积极影响的倾向可能反映了一种更广泛的趋势，即破坏日常生活中的亲社会性——损害自己和他人的福祉。