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Related Experiment Video

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An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
07:36

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Published on: May 3, 2016

Not so innocent: does seeing one's own capacity for wrongdoing predict forgiveness?

Julie Juola Exline1, Roy F Baumeister, Anne L Zell

  • 1Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106-7123, USA. julie.exline@case.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|February 21, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People are more forgiving when they believe they could commit similar offenses. This personal capability fosters forgiveness by reducing perceived offense severity and increasing empathy and similarity to the transgressor.

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Moral Psychology
  • Interpersonal Relationships

Background:

  • Understanding factors influencing forgiveness is crucial for relationship repair and social harmony.
  • Previous research has identified various predictors of forgiveness, but the role of personal offense capability remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the perceived capability of committing similar offenses influences an individual's willingness to forgive transgressors.
  • To identify mediating factors and boundary conditions of this effect.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted seven studies employing diverse methodologies, including hypothetical scenarios, recalled personal offenses, and both correlational and experimental designs.
  • Examined individual and group processes to assess the robustness of the findings.

Main Results:

  • Individuals are more forgiving when they perceive themselves as capable of committing similar offenses.
  • This effect is mediated by reduced perceived offense severity, increased empathic understanding, and perceived similarity to the transgressor.
  • The similarity between personal and target offenses (in severity and type) is important for predicting forgiveness.
  • The personal capability effect on forgiveness is independent of other known predictors and is stronger in men.

Conclusions:

  • Personal capability to commit similar offenses is a significant, independent predictor of forgiveness.
  • Understanding this capability effect offers new insights into the psychology of forgiveness and interpersonal reconciliation.
  • Interventions aimed at fostering forgiveness could potentially leverage the concept of shared human fallibility.