Can emotional forgiveness promote a decision to forgive? Evidence from a six-wave random-intercept cross-lagged panel study of Pakistani Muslims during Ramadan

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examined the degree to which an extended religious experience during Ramadan might promote interpersonal forgiveness. With six waves of data from a sample of N = 215 Pakistani Muslim students, we used random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling to examine the associations between decisional and emotional forgiveness from before to after Ramadan in 2020. We observed three key findings. First, we demonstrated the strong cross-time measurement invariance of both the Decision to Forgive and the Emotional Forgiveness scales. Second, both decisional and emotional forgiveness remained relatively stable during the holy month of Ramadan. Third, there was evidence supporting positive bidirectional temporal relations between decisional and emotional forgiveness, such that each construct demonstrated at least one positive lagged association with the other. We discuss some implications of the findings, including the potential for positive emotional changes to evoke positive changes in behavioral intentions towards transgressors.