NEW YORK — American Greetings Corp. has introduced ThankList, a campaign to get people to express gratitude to the people who have made a difference in their lives — and in the process become more civil and "help make the world a more thoughtful and caring place."

American Greetings Corp. has introduced ThankList, a campaign to get people to express gratitude to the people who have made a difference in their lives — and in the process become more civil and "help make the world a more thoughtful and caring place."

"Did you know that 95% of Americans believe we have an incivility issue in our society?" American Greetings president and chief operating officer John Beeder said on Tuesday at an event here to introduce the campaign.

"We’ve spent the last year thinking about how we can inspire positive change in a world that many say is becoming increasingly angry and uncivil," Beeder said.

The company, the nation’s No. 2 greeting cards supplier, behind Hallmark Cards Inc., is encouraging people to start practicing gratitude by producing their own ThankList, written or video messages of appreciation to those who have helped shape their lives.

The launch event featured the premier of short films produced by documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Kopple was enlisted by American Greetings to follow five individuals as they created and then fulfilled their personal ThankLists.

"I really wanted to work on this, more than anything. I mean, it was right up my alley," said Kopple, who won Oscars for two of her documentaries: Harlan County, USA, in 1976, and American Dream, in 1990.

Also partnering on the ThankList project is AOL.com Inc.’s HuffingtonPost.com website, which this week launched "HuffPost Gratitude," a section in partnership with American Greetings that features readers’ stories about "gratitude’s transformative power to bring a much-needed dose of perspective to our lives," according to Arianna Huffington, the site’s chair, president and editor in chief.

Also attending the launch event were actress, director and producer Elizabeth Banks; motivational speaker and author Gabby Bernstein; psychologist and author Randy Kamen; and alternative medicine advocate and best-selling author Deepak Chopra.

Chopra summarized a recent article he wrote for a scientific journal that demonstrated how the practice of thankfulness can eliminate toxic feelings.