Effect of context and personality on the forgiveness schema

MÉLANIE GAUCHÉ
Université du Mirail, Toulouse

ETIENNE MULLET
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

This study examined the extent to which the type of aggressive behavior affected the impact of circumstances of the aggression on the victim's willingness to forgive. The participants were 97 adults aged 17 to 68 years. They expressed willingness to forgive in 3 contexts: breaking up of a love affair, gossiping at work, and collision during a game. As hypothesized, apologies and intent had more impact in the physical aggression condition than in the psychological aggression conditions, cancellation of consequences had more impact in the psychological aggression conditions than in the physical aggression condition, the structure of the forgiveness schema varied as a function of the type of harmful situation, and participants with a higher score in emotional stability and agreeableness were more willing to forgive than participants with a lower score.