The antecedents and consequences of interpersonal forgiveness: A meta‐analytic review

Abstract

This article examines the antecedents and outcomes of forgiveness. The interpersonal forgiveness literature is qualitatively reviewed. Antecedents to forgiveness are classified by their proximity to forgiveness based on M. E. McCullough and colleagues, (1998) framework. From most distal to most proximal these antecedents are personality, relationship factors, offense-specific factors, and social-cognitive factors including empathy. The association of these antecedents and several consequences of forgiveness are quantitatively examined in meta-analyses. All investigated variables were significantly related to forgiveness. Empathy was a stronger correlate of forgiveness than any other non-social-cognitive antecedent except for trait agreeableness. Methodological factors and the average age of subjects moderated the relationship between forgiveness and some of its correlates. Implications and future directions are considered.

Cognitive and emotional predictors of episodic and dispositional forgiveness

“…Thompson et al, 2005;Eaton, Struthers, & Santelli, 2006;Drinnon & Jones, 2009) and related to different variables (e.g. Allemand et al, 2007;Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010;Riek & Mania, 2012). That is because forgiveness in a particular situation involves factors that are both intrinsic (among others dispositional forgiveness) and extrinsic (specific contextual aspects) to individuals (Koutsos, Wertheim, & Kornblum, 2008), while disposition to forgive, apart from multiple circumstances, depends primarily on personality characteristics (Paleari, Regalia, & Fincham, 2009).…”

Forgiving the unforgivable: Couples’ forgiveness and expected forgiveness of emotional and sexual infidelity from an error management theory perspective.

“…Possibly, respondents fail to consider various relationship factors when imagining transgressions (McCullough & Hoyt, 2002). Also, the effect of religiosity, attributions, and negative emotions are shown to be stronger in hypothetical forgiveness compared to actual forgiveness (Riek & Mania, 2012).…”

Agreeableness and interpersonal forgiveness in young adults: the moderating role of gender

“…Meta-analytic evidence suggests that deficits in agreeableness may be the most robust predictor of revenge intentions and interpersonal conflict across a variety of situations (Bettencourt, et al, Lourdes rey, NataLio extremera ;riek & Mania, 2012). Nevertheless, studies into potential gender differences in the association between this dispositional quality and forgiveness have been scarce.…”

“…earlier research has found that a disposition to forgive is related most strongly to two specific higher-order dimensions of the five-factor personality domains: agreeableness and neuroticism (Mccullough, 2001;Mullet, Neto & rivière, 2005). cumulative meta-analytic evidence suggests that agreeableness may be the most robust predictor of forgiveness (Riek & Mania, 2012) and interpersonal conflict (Bettencourt, Talley, Benjamin & Valentine 2006;Jensen-Campbell & graziano, 2001), existing less empirical consensus with neuroticism. people who are low in agreeableness are antagonistic, hostile, irritable, and mistrustful of others; they also seem to have a need to punish people that they perceive to have provoked them, which might contribute to a lower dispositional tendency to forgive others (lee & Ashton, 2012) and higher levels of interpersonal conflict (Jensen-Campbell, Gleason, Adams & Malcolm, 2003).…”