Citation

Raj M, Wiltermuth SS, Adams GS. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/pspi0000215

PMID

31464481

Abstract

A single transgressor sometimes harms more than just 1 victim. We examine a previously undocumented social cost of forgiving following these multiple-victim transgressions. We find that nonforgiving victims believe that other victims who forgive the common transgressor make their decisions to withhold forgiveness appear ungenerous. Faced with this threat, nonforgiving victims report that other forgiving (vs. nonforgiving) victims have overclaimed their standing to forgive the common transgressor and consequently perceive these forgiving victims as demonstrating a lack of benevolence toward them. Nonforgiving victims also perceive forgiving victims to have relatively little integrity. We test these social costs of forgiving in the field and in the lab across 7 studies plus a meta-analysis of 5 of those studies. We also identify 1 route by which forgiving victims can attenuate the social costs they face: they can affirm other victims' decisions to withhold forgiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en