Abstract
Forgiveness, as an important content in the field of morality, means that the offended person overcomes the negative emotion, cognition, and behavior toward the offender and replaces it with positive emotion, cognition, and behavior. Based on the theory of the limitation of psychological resources, ego depletion (ED) will lead to the weakening of self-regulation function, thus making some immoral behaviors, which is not conducive to individual forgiveness. In order to explore the influence of ED on individual forgiveness in different interpersonal offense situations, this study used the Stroop task to manipulate the level of ED and used imaginary situations to distinguish offending situations. We found that the level of forgiveness in a serious offense situation was significantly lower than that in a mild offense situation, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.158. In different interpersonal offense situations, ED has different effects on forgiveness. In the severe offense situation, the forgiveness level of high-ED individuals was significantly lower than that of the low-ED individuals, p = 0.023, partial η2 = 0.144; in the mild offense situation, the forgiveness level of high-ED individuals was significantly higher than that of low-ED individuals, p = 0.029, partial η2 = 0.140. The results showed that different levels of ED have no consistent effect on forgiveness in different interpersonal offense situations; high ED hinders individual forgiveness in serious offense situations but can promote individual forgiveness in mild offense situations.
Highlights
In real life, interpersonal offenses occur from time to time
We found that the level of forgiveness in a serious offense situation was significantly lower than that in a mild offense situation, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.158
The results showed that different levels of ego depletion (ED) have no consistent effect on forgiveness in different interpersonal offense situations; high ED hinders individual forgiveness in serious offense situations but can promote individual forgiveness in mild offense situations
Summary
Interpersonal offenses occur from time to time. The occurrence of offenses and the coping strategies of both sides are interpersonal problems and moral problems. Forgiveness requires the offended to reduce revenge motivation, increase benevolence motivation, and replace negative feelings with positive emotions (Enright et al, 1992; Hargrave and Sells, 1997; McCullough et al, 1998; Carnevale and Fujita, 2016; Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016; Forster et al, 2019; see for a review, Bertrams, 2020). Forgiveness is mainly defined as a process of transformation and change, that is, the change of the victim’s attitude toward the offender or pro-social motivation, from negative to positive emotion, cognition, and behavior (Enright et al, 1992; McCullough et al, 1998). Several researchers have designated forgiveness as a continuum of prosocial changes from hostility to friendliness (e.g., Forster et al, 2019)
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