Divine attributions, gift appraisals, and supernatural operating rules as predictors of gratitude to God.

What types of attributions and appraisals predict gratitude to God (GTG)? After preregistering key hypotheses, we did an Internet survey of 1078 U.S. adults focused on a recent positive event. Even when controlling religiousness and God belief, GTG was strongly related to divine attributions for the event, which seemed more plausible when God was seen as powerful and loving and when divine attribution made the event seem more meaningful. In addition to these cognitive judgments, divine attributions and GTG were linked with desire: wanting to see God as a cause. Relationally, GTG was associated with seeing God's intentions as positive (trying to help, love, comfort, encourage, or protect), with actually feeling loved, cherished, valued, or appreciated by God in response, and with seeing the event as a divine gift – a perception more likely when people saw God as a gift-giver: giving gifts often to many people, including themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]