Our brains are wired for thank oous

​My toddler, at just 22 months old, sat in his car seat and uttered a cheerful “thank ouuuu.” This was followed by a brief pause and another “thank ouuu.”  

The thing is he was sitting alone in the back seat, so who was he talking to?

I peeked in the rear-view mirror and saw he was holding a piece of paper in his left hand and was about to pass it to his right hand. When he completed the pass successfully, he told himself, “thank ouuu.”

He gave it a few seconds then returned the paper to his left hand and again repeated the expression. I did a small chuckle and hid my delight so as not to distract him from what was clearly a learning experiment.
 
Maybe he’s on to something. Hearing a thank you and being thankful too does seem to cheer people up. Maybe even thanking yourself does that too! In this episode we examine why we should say more thank yous.