Supernatural Agency and Forgiveness

Abstract

The present research examined the hypothesis that supernatural agency attributions underlie the relation between religion and forgiveness. In two experiments a priming procedure was used to make religious concepts temporarily more salient. In Experiment 1, a religion prime marginaly enhanced forgiveness but did not enhance supernatural attributions, compared to a control group. However, correlational support was found for the hypothesis that supernatural attributions were associated with more forgiveness, less punishment and less responsibility of the offender. In Experiment 2, it was attempted to enhance supernatural attributions by first manipulating participants’ sense of control (high vs. low) before presenting a religion prime. As expected, in the low control condition, religious priming enhanced the perceived likelihood that a higher power had an influence on violent situations, and enhanced participants’ forgiveness toward the offenders. Importantly, mediation analysis further supported the existence of a relation between supernatural agency attributions and participants’ ability to forgive.