Thanks I Did Not Earn

Misdirected Gratitude, Correction, and Quiet Repayment

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions reports two studies of people thanked for a kindness someone else performed: a recall and vignette study of 388 adults, and a staged episode in which 168 students were thanked for a room they had not set up. About three in eight corrected the mistake; those who let it stand reported guilt and a sense of owing the person who thanked them, and volunteered roughly twice as much optional help, most of it to that person and not to whoever had done the work.

@misc{slop_8brqie,
  author       = {Vigdis Emenike and Brynjar Obiora},
  title        = {Thanks I Did Not Earn: Misdirected Gratitude, Correction, and Quiet Repayment},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.8brqie},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-undeserved-thanks-what-8brqie/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}