Motiv Emot (2006) 30:199–205 DOI 10.1007/s11031-006-9031-z ORIGINAL PAPER The Effects of Helper Intention on Gratitude and Indebtedness Jo-Ann Tsang Published online: 25 July 2006 C ⃝ Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006 Abstract Gratitude and indebtedness have often been equated in psychology. Emerging research, however, suggests that these emotions are experienced differently and occur in response to different situations (Gray, Emmons, & Morrison, 2001). The current set of experiments investigated the effects of helper intention on grateful and indebted reactions to a favor. Study 1 utilized scenario methodology to present participants with a favor that was given with benevolent or ulterior motives. Participants felt significantly more grateful when the helper had benevolent intentions. Reactions of indebtedness did not vary as a function of helper intention. In Study 2, participants recalled favors that had been done for them for either unselfish or selfish reasons. Participants reported significantly more gratitude for the favor when they were instructed to recall an unselfish favor. Levels of indebtedness were not affected by helper intention. Study 3 provided participants with an ambiguous favor scenario to better assess individuals’ natural reactions to receiving help, and replicated the results of Study 1. Together, these three experiments provide support for differences between grateful and indebted emotions. Keywords Gratitude . Indebtedness . Intention Individuals may have different reactions to the receipt of aid (Fisher, 1983). For example, an employee might feel grateful J. Tsang () Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97334, Waco, Texas 76798-7334, USA e-mail: JoAnn Tsang@Baylor.edu to a coworker who provides much needed help on a difficult project. If that coworker is perceived to have helped just to make herself look good in front of the boss, however, the employee might instead react with negative emotions such as resentment or indebtedness rather than gratitude. The cur- rent paper examines the differences between the emotions of gratitude and indebtedness, investigating how helper in- tention differentially affects these two potential reactions to aid. Gratitude Gratitude is one common reaction to aid (Gallup, 1998). Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1988) posited that gratitude was a compound emotion that arose from the admiration of a praiseworthy action (intention) and the joy experienced when that action is desirable (or valuable) to the self. Emmons and Crumpler (2000) described gratitude as “an emotional re- sponse to a gift” (p. 56), adding that gratitude is an interper- sonal emotion that is felt toward other people or entities, and not toward oneself. McCullough (2002) defined gratitude as “a cognitive-affective response to the recognition that one has been the beneficiary (or, in some cases, only the intended beneficiary) of someone else’s good will” (p. 303). Research has demonstrated that individuals are more likely to expe- rience gratitude when they receive a favor that is perceived to be (1) valued by the recipient, (2) costly to the benefac- tor, (3) given by the benefactor with benevolent intentions, and (4) given gratuitously (as contrasted with benefits given due to role-based obligations) (e.g., Bar-Tal, Bar-Zohar, Greenberg, & Hermon, 1977; Graham, 1988; Lane & Anderson, 1976; Tesser, Gatewood, & Driver, 1968). The vast majority of this research has relied on scenario Springer