Empathy-Motivated Forgiveness: The Influence of Empathy, Prior Experience, and Contextual Factorsin route to Forgiveness of a Transgressor

Abstract

Is the process of forgiveness contingent upon the empathic response towards another person? It is suspected, that a victim cannot begin to act, and then forgive a transgressor before he or she is able to empathize with the transgressor’s guilt and distress. The empathy-altruism hypothesis is one example that further exemplifies the motivation and connection of the empathic response with forgiveness. In interpersonal relationships, conflicts are inevitable. The motivation to mend these problems and reconcile with the offender occurs through the experience of empathy and the altruism to act with positive regard. Prior experience of a situation is not a necessity for empathy-motivated forgiveness to occur. Fifty women and 20 men participated in this study (mean age of the respondents was 25.31). Participants answered questions from two vignettes and three scales, the New Empathy Scale the Forgiveness Scale, and the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale to assess the relationship between empathy and forgiveness, as well as the effect of prior experience. Empathy was correlated with forgiveness, according to the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale but not the Forgiveness Scale. Empathic individuals significantly forgave a transgressor without previously experiencing a similar situation. Religiosity was also correlated with all three scales. Findings extend prior research by demonstrating that empathy is a possible motivator of conciliatory behavior. Considerations of additional influences of empathy-related forgiveness were considered, and a pattern of gender on both empathy and forgiveness was also considered.