Attribution processes, emotions, and culture as determinants of forgiveness

Forgiveness was studied in relation to processes psychological (attribution and emotion) and cultural factors (individualism and collectivism). This study investigated: (1) the role of attributions concerning intentionality of a negative action and controllability of its cause; (2) the role of attribution-related interpersonal emotions; (3) how differences in individualism and collectivism value orientations may relate to the attribution-emotion processes, and; (4) overall systematic relationships among these variables as determinants of forgiveness.; An instrument comprised of four scales designed to measure Forgiveness, Controllability, Intentionality, Emotions, and Collectivism/Individualism was administered to 229 students at California State University, San Bernardino. Bentler's (1995) statistical package for the analysis of structural equation (EQS) was used to test the following hypotheses; (1) Individualism and collectivism would influence perceived controllability and intentionality and forgiveness; (2) Perceived controllability and intentionality would influence emotions and forgiveness (3) Emotions would influence forgiveness, and (4) A causal model integrating all specific hypotheses would provide a good fit of the data.; The results indicated that individualism did not show a direct effect on forgiveness, but it showed an indirect effect on forgiveness mediated by controllability and negative emotions. In contrast, higher levels of collectivism had a significant positive direct effect on forgiveness, and lower levels of collectivism had an effect on negative emotions, through which it had a negative effect on forgiveness. Thus, it appears that more collectivistic people tend to forgive more, regardless of what they think or how they feel.; An important finding of the study was that Intentionality, regardless of cultural values, was the most important attributional determinant of negative emotions, which in turn impacts the outcome of forgiveness. For example, if a person perceives higher intentionality for the causes of a negative event, he/she experiences more anger and less sympathy, which, in turn results in less forgiveness. Also, an interesting finding was that negative emotions were more influential than empathic emotions as determinants of forgiveness. Overall, the results showed that the model of the study conceives forgiveness and related conflict behaviors as a function of psychological processes (attribution and emotion) and cultural factors (individualism and collectivism). Further research is suggested to better understand the power of social groups on forgiveness with special attention to the differential attributions and feelings evoked by in-groups vs. out-groups.