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group to gra�tude above humility and compas- ment on analyzing one virtue at a �me, but
sion? analyzing increasingly complex models is war-
Nonetheless, the media�ng roles of the virtues ranted.
warrants a�en�on. First, it appeared in this stu-
dy that gra�tude creates a substan�al pathway Humility as a master virtue
through which rela�onship with God leads to Humility did significantly predict increases in
well-being in Chris�ans. It is not surprising that both gra�tude and compassion, yet the overall
Chris�ans may receive this benefit, given esta- effect of humility on gra�tude appears modest,
blished links between general religiosity, gra�- aligning with the findings of Krause and Hay-
tude and well-being (e.g., Emmons & Crumpler, ward (2015). Krumrei-Mancuso (2017) found a
2000; Krause et al., 2015; Rosmarin et al., significantly higher correla�on between humili-
2011), and because gra�tude is well establis- ty and gra�tude than the present study, but
hed in the Biblical text as a right and expected they measured humility and gra�tude
response to a rela�onship with God (e.g., Psalm differently and under-sampled religious popu-
106:1, Hebrews 12:28-29). We agree with Ros- la�ons. Given that a rela�onship with God is
marin et al. (2011) that integra�ng spirituality understood to increase gra�tude, it might be
with gra�tude interven�ons may produce psy- that Chris�ans with this reliable source of gra�-
chological benefit. tude have gra�tude elevated beyond the major
impact of humility. These specula�ons warrant
Compassion’s minimal nega�ve media�on of a further inves�ga�on, par�cularly the theory
rela�onship with God on well-being in this stu- that humility may demonstrate a more signifi-
dy is at odds with Steffen and Masters (2005) cant impact on gra�tude in the non-religious
who found that compassion mediated between than in Chris�ans.
intrinsic religiosity and well-being. However,
Steffens and Masters (2005) found that com- This study provides some supports for Lavelock
passionate a�tude accounted for this media�- et al.'s (2017) conten�on that humility may be
on, not compassionate behavior. Given the the primary character virtue that enacts a me-
Chris�an emphasis on compassionate ac�on, chanism of increasing secondary virtues. Lave-
the SCBCS was used in this study to measure lock et al. (2017) found that specific virtues in-
compassion as it focuses on ac�ons. These fin- crease through focused a�en�on, which subse-
dings may point to burdens associated with quently fosters the development of secondary
ac�ve compassion in the Chris�an community virtues as a by-product. Further, Lavelock et al.
that may occur with increased virtue. (2017) showed that humility training impacts
virtues with strong theore�cal links to humility
This study suggests that humility may directly (forgiveness, pa�ence), and gra�tude was not
apply the benefits of a rela�onship with God on one of those virtues. Gra�tude was inves�ga-
well-being in Chris�ans to a greater degree ted in the present study, and the impact of hu-
than it ‘funnels’ it through other virtue deve- mility on gra�tude is far less than on compassi-
lopment. However, including addi�onal charac- on. One explana�on is that humility may not be
ter virtues in the model may reduce this direct a master virtue to all virtues. Humility may act
media�on. For example, this study found humi- potently on virtues primarily expressed
lity appears to ‘funnel’ some of its benefit through awareness of others and ac�on to-
through other virtues (compassion and gra�tu- wards them (such as forgiveness; Lavelock et
de). This supports other researchers’ sugges�- al., 2017), but not virtues that appear less im-
ons that humility’s main benefit to well-being is mediately rela�onal (e.g., gra�tude). Such hy-
indirect, through the development of virtues pothesizing is tenta�ve given the lack of evi-
and reduced self-protec�on (Dwiwardani et al. dence that precludes humility from the master
2014; Krumrei-Mancuso, 2017; Lavelock et al., virtue posi�on, and because humility did signi-
2017). In short, the model tested is an improve- ficantly impact gra�tude. It is warranted to sug-
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