2023/08/07 by Chris Chambers · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Forgiveness and Related Behaviors #Conflict Management and Negotiation #Workplace Violence and Bullying
paper · pdf · doi:10.24072/pci.rr.100444
openalex publication_date 2023/08/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/12/24
The empathy model of forgiveness conceptualized forgiving as an empathy-facilitated motivational change that leads to reductions in the motivation to behave in relationship -destructive ways and increases in the motivation to behave in relationship-constructive ways toward an offender. In a Replication Registered Report with a US American Prolific sample (N = 794), we conducted a replication of Study 1 from McCullough et al. (1997) with extensions manipulating empathy to determine causality and measuring revenge motivation adopted from McCullough et al. (1998). We found support for empathy of the wronged person as positively associated with perceived apology (r = 0.45, 95% CI [0.35, 0.55]) and forgiveness toward the offender (r = 0.64, 95% CI [0.56, 0.70]). In terms of behavioral motivations, we found support for forgiveness as negatively associated with avoidance motivation (r = -0.51, 95% CI [-0.59, -0.42]), and revenge motivation (r = -0.43, 95% CI [-0.52, -0.33]). Also, we found support for a positive association between forgiveness and conciliatory motivation (r = 0.51, 95% CI [0.41, 0.59]). Extending the replication by manipulating empathy, we found that empathy had a causal impact on forgiveness (η2p = 0.08, 90% CI [0.05, 0.11]) and perceived apology (η2p = .02, 90% CI [0.01, 0.04]). Individuals in the high empathy condition were higher than those in the control and low empathy conditions in forgiveness (d = 0.60-0.62) and perceived apology (d = 0.28-0.30), with no support for differences between the control and low empathy conditions. Overall, we conclude strong empirical support for the empathy model of forgiveness. Materials, data, and code are available on: https://osf.io/fmuv2/