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Zero-sum belief is the belief that someone's gains are another's losses. Assuming that beneficiaries' zero-sum beliefs let them perceive benefactors' cost resulting from giving benefits, this study examined whether the zero-sum belief increases the occurrences of grateful feelings and expression in apologetic form, which is represented by "sumimasen" in Japanese. We manipulated participants' zero-sum beliefs and rewarded them for the task. Thereafter, we asked participants what they wanted to say, how they felt, and how much they perceived our (i.e., benefactors') cost. The results revealed that participants whose zero-sum beliefs were experimentally strengthened were inclined to select the grateful expression in apologetic form from some options to convey what they wanted to say, though grateful feelings in apologetic form and perceived costs were not significantly affected. These results suggested the possibility that individuals' zero-sum beliefs let them express their gratitude in apologetic form independently from the extent to which they have such feelings or perceive benefactors' cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People tend to show some types of interpersonal behavior after feeling gratitude: reciprocal behavior, expression of apology, expression of thanks, and prosocial behavior. We examined the mechanism of these behaviors in 304 undergraduate students who were presented with three types of situations that produce gratitude: receiving help, receiving gifts, or imposing on others. We asked participants to rate three types of cognitive appraisals (receiving favor, cost to benefactor, naturalness of the situation), two types of emotional experiences of gratitude (contentment, apologetic emotion), and four types of interpersonal behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that receiving benefit basically facilitated reciprocal behavior, prosocial behavior, and expression of thanks. Furthermore, the cost to the benefactor basically facilitated expression of apology. However, some effects of cognitive appraisal and emotional expression on behaviors differed among the types of situations. In particular, the results for imposing on others were different from the other situations. These results are discussed related to the different characteristics of the types of situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]