The effects of apology and perspective taking on interpersonal forgiveness: A dissonance-attribution model of interpersonal forgiveness

The author investigated (a) the effects of a victim's perspective taking an d a transgressor's apology on interpersonal forgiveness and (b) forgiveness as a mode of dissonance reduction. Before the participants read a scenario describing a situation in which they imagined being mistreated by a classm ate, the author randomly assigned them to I of 4 perspective-taking conditi ons: (a) recalling times when they had mistreated or hurt others (i.e., the recall-self-as-transgressor condition): (b) imagining how they would think , feel, and behave if they were the classmate (i.e., the imagine-self condi tion); (c) imagining how the classmate would think, feel, and behave (i.e., the imagine-other condition), or (d) imagining the situation from their ow n (i.e., the victim's/control) perspective. After reading the scenario, the participants read an apology from the classmate. The participants in the r ecall-self-as-transgressor condition were significantly more likely than th ose in the control condition to (a) make benevolent attributions, (b) exper ience benevolent emotional reactions, and (c) forgive the transgressor. The relationship between the perspective-taking manipulation and forgiveness w as mediated by the benevolent attributions and positive emotional reactions experienced by the victims.