**2. Gratitude is a critical component of the good life**

Is gratitude important to the good life? Following others, we define the good life as using one's strengths in a way that produces enduring happiness. Thus, happiness and satisfaction with life are central components of the good life. In this section, we will attempt to establish that gratitude does indeed enhance happiness. First, a plethora of studies established that gratitude is strongly correlated with happiness [2, 3]. However, a multitude of correlations does not increase the likelihood that gratitude actually *causes* happiness. Providing stronger support for causation, several prospective studies have shown that gratitude predicts increased well-being over time [4, 5], and a number of experimental studies have manipulated gratitude exercises and shown that gratitude increases happiness [3, 6–8] (for reviews, see [9, 10]). In short, correlational, prospective, and experimental studies have supported the conclusion that gratitude is a critical component of the good life.
