The road to forgiveness: A meta-analytic synthesis of its situational and dispositional correlates.

Abstract

Forgiveness has received widespread attention among psychologists from social, personality, clinical, developmental, and organizational perspectives alike. Despite great progress, the forgiveness literature has witnessed few attempts at empirical integration. Toward this end, we meta-analyze results from 175 studies and 26,006 participants to examine the correlates of interpersonal forgiveness (i.e., forgiveness of a single offender by a single victim). A tripartite forgiveness typology is proposed, encompassing victims' (a) cognitions, (b) affect, and (c) constraints following offense, with each consisting of situational and dispositional components. We tested hypotheses with respect to 22 distinct constructs, as correlates of forgiveness, that have been measured across different fields within psychology. We also evaluated key sample and study characteristics, including gender, age, time, and methodology as main effects and moderators. Results highlight the multifaceted nature of forgiveness. Variables with particularly notable effects include intent (r = -.49), state empathy (r = .51), apology (r = .42), and state anger (r = -.41). Consistent with previous theory, situational constructs are shown to account for greater variance in forgiveness than victim dispositions, although within-category differences are considerable. Sample and study characteristics yielded negligible effects on forgiveness, despite previous theorizing to the contrary: The effect of gender was nonsignificant (r = .01), and the effect of age was negligible (r = .06). Preliminary evidence suggests that methodology may exhibit some moderating effects. Scenario methodologies led to enhanced effects for cognitions; recall methodologies led to enhanced effects for affect.

Exploring the dimensionality of the TRIM-18 in the Spanish context

“…Offenses or "wrongs" violate moral boundaries. Forgiveness is usually correlated with higher empathy and lower anger states (Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010;McCullough et al, 1997). Also, McCullough et al (1998) suggested that relationship closeness might facilitate forgiveness.…”

“…Also, McCullough et al (1998) suggested that relationship closeness might facilitate forgiveness. Thus, multiple characteristics of the forgiver, the transgressor, the relationship and the offense affect whether forgiveness is experienced (for a review, see Fehr et al, 2010). Considering the different conceptualizations and the high interest in forgiveness, diverse measures have been developed to assess several types and aspects of forgiveness (for a review, see Worthington, et al, 2015).…”

Prosocial response to client-instigated victimization: The roles of forgiveness and workgroup conflict.

“…Second, evidence has shown that victims who are close to their perpetrators or who are concerned about breaching social or moral standards are likely to forgive, yet the literature also has demonstrated that the egregiousness of perpetrators' actions is negatively related to forgiveness (Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010). Although these associations with forgiveness are in opposite linear directions, we suggest that they have the potential to function together.…”

“…Neuroticism was controlled because more neurotic individuals may be more likely to recall and report negative incidents (cf. Blaney, 1986) and less likely to engage in forgiveness (Fehr et al, 2010).…”

“…However, some scholars have recognized that context matters a great deal for explaining why people forgive (Aquino et al, 2006;Fehr & Gelfand, 2012;Fehr et al, 2010;Finkel et al, 2002). Jehn (1995) observed that environments promoting increased levels of workgroup conflict "did not provide an atmosphere of .…”