It might seem like a good idea to write a thank-you note. Your parents might have told you to writea note or letter of gratitude, but how many of us actually sit down to do that?Amit Kumar is an assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University ofTexas, in Austin. He reminds us why thank-you notes and other expressions of gratitude areimportant. Kumar and Nicholas Epley at the University of Chicago, in Illinois, conducted severalexperiments on thank-you notes. They wanted to see what the hesitation is about sending thank-you notes to people and what thereaction is for the person who receives it. Their findings are published in the journal PsychologicalScience."One thing that occurred to us is expressing gratitude improves well-being," Kumar says. "And yetpeople don't seem to walk around giving thanks to people quite often," he says. By Austin American-Statesman, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.26.18Word Count 489Level 930L
This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela. com. Kumar and Epley asked their students to each write a letter of gratitude to another person. Thenthey questioned both the writer and the recipient about that letter and how it made them feel. Most of the students sent the letter by email. The researchers then contacted the recipients andasked about receiving the letter. Formal Wording Isn't ImportantWhat they found was that writing the letter was a positive experience for the writer. It improvedtheir mood directly afterward. The writers didn't think it would have that much of an effect on the person receiving their letter. They underestimated how much surprise the recipient would feel getting the letter and how muchit would improve the recipient's mood. The writers thought it would be awkward for the recipientto receive a letter of gratitude, but the recipients reported that awkwardness much less. The writers worried about what to say and how to say it. However, Kumar says, the recipientsdidn't really place a high value on formal rules or the wording."They feel extremely positive when they were on the receiving end of these expressions," he says."They don't really feel awkward at all."The writers were worried, thinking things like, "Am I going to find the right words?"Recipients Feel The Warmth"When you are a recipient, you focus on the warmth of the intent," Kumar says. The recipientsconsidered the feelings behind the letters, he says. "How heartfelt was it? How friendly andwarm?"The writers, on the other hand, were overly concerned about the "correctness" of what they werewriting. If they knew what a positive effect it would have on this person, "they would do it more often,"Kumar says. Kumar says this study and others like it provide a reminder for people. They tell us that "simple, small changes in our everyday lives can make a big difference in how we treat other people andhow we feel," he says."It's the sort of thing we should do more often," hey says.

what is the author’s central idea and supporting details that back up the central idea.