In The News: Psychology Professor Monica Bartlett Talks Gratitude, Loneliness with NPR

The United States is in the midst of what many are calling a "loneliness epidemic," and Gonzaga's Monica Bartlett recently did an interview with Boston's National Public Radio station to discuss how practicing gratitude is one means to remedy the problem.

Bartlett, a professor of psychology and head of the Positive Emotion and Social Behavior Lab at Gonzaga, studies how emotions evolve to help people make good decisions.

Asked by a reporter at NPR outlet WBUR how practicing gratitude can lead to decreased loneliness, Bartlett responded that by exercises such as keeping a gratitude journal we start to realize that we are genuinely cared for by our fellow citizens.

"You begin to scan your day differently once you grow accustomed to doing this," Bartlett told reporters Lisa Mullins and Samantha Raphelson. "So that you are noting when it's happening, even when it's something very small. You know, 'what a lovely thing that person just did for me.' Whereas for many of us, I think by the end of our day, we may have forgotten these things. Gratitude habit forming exercises push us, I think, to actually note and then remember these things."

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