According to the Grammarphobia website ‘performative gratitude’ first appeared around a dozen years ago on social media and then spread to more mainstream media.
Writing in Psychology Today Dr Joel Wong says, ‘performative gratitude occurs when we express thanks not out of genuine appreciation but to burnish our social image. Like other forms of virtue signalling, it thrives on public display—especially on social media.'
’The example he gives is someone who gushes out thanks to everyone on their LinkedIn page ‘who has helped.’
This, he claims, is not sincere gratitude but a performance put on to show what a nice person you are.
His description reminded me of the little speeches given by winners at the Oscars, the Grammies, the Logies or any of those award shows.
These little speeches usually consist of a ‘performance’ of over-flowing gratitude.
They thank their producer and then go on to thank everyone from their mother to God himself. ‘Performative gratitude’ is so far found in none of the major dictionaries.
A little surprisingly, it is not even in the online hyper-hip Urban Dictionary.
Perhaps it has not yet been used enough, or is just not taken seriously, by the big dictionaries.
However, the component word in this compound noun ‘performative’ is recorded from 1922 (when it appeared in the Journal of Philosophy).
It just means ‘performing an act.’
However, I wonder if ‘performative gratitude’ is always a negative thing.
Yes, I agree that when people gush insincerely that is nonsense and should never be taken seriously.
But there are lots of much smaller acts of ‘performative gratitude’, many of them almost automatic and unthinking, that help to grease wheels of social cohesion.
When someone does some small thing for us, even if it's just handing over the coffee we ordered at the local coffee shop, we automatically say ‘thanks.’
And I think we should.
It’s not profound.
It’s not deep.
It’s just a little bit of ‘performative gratitude.’
But it is nice!
My longer piece about 'monocultural' is now up on the Sky News website -- here's the link: 'Shared culture': Pauline Hanson's reasonable wish for Australia weaponised by those who resent the idea our nation should have a common social purpose | Sky News Australia
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