Emmons and McCullough (2003) conducted a study in which one group of participants recorded their feelings of gratitude in a diary each day and the other group was not asked to write anything and to go about their usual tasks. As compared with participants who did not write their feelings of gratitude each day, the members of the diary group were:

Currently, as of february 2016, an american traveling in france would be by the exchange rate. the weakness of the euro and the strength of the us dollar means that items in france cost less to an american than they otherwise would. of course, if this trend reverses and the us dollar weakens and the euro strengthens, such as was happening in early 2008, an american traveling in france would have an adverse experience because items would cost relatively more.