Writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression facilitates forgiveness.
The authors examined the effects of writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression on forgiveness. Participants (N = 304) were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min writing tasks in which they wrote about either (a) traumatic features of the most recent interpersonal transgression they had suffered, (b) personal benefits resulting from the transgression, or (c) a control topic that was unrelated to the transgression. Participants in the benefit-finding condition became more forgiving toward their transgressors than did those in the other 2 conditions, who did not differ from each other. In part, the benefit-finding condition appeared to facilitate forgiveness by encouraging participants to engage in cognitive processing as they wrote their essays. Results suggest that benefit finding may be a unique and useful addition to efforts to help people forgive interpersonal transgressions through structured interventions. The Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory--18-Item Version (TRIM-18) is appended.
McCullough
Michael E
ME
Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. mikem@miami.edu
Root
Lindsey M
LM
Cohen
Adam D
AD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D012932:Social Facilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014956:Writing