The Influence Of Self-depletion On Forgiveness In Different Interpersonal Offense Situations

As an important content in the field of morality,forgiveness refers to positive emotion,cognition and behavior that the victim adopts after overcoming the negative emotion,cognition and behavior towards the offender.Based on the theory of limited psychological resources,the ego depletion will lead to the weakening of self-regulation function and immoral behavior thereafter,which is not conducive to the individual's forgiveness of others.This study explored the influence of ego depletion on individual forgiveness level in different interpersonal offensive situations.The first study explored the influence of ego depletion on forgiveness by means of questionnaires,in which the moderating effect of offensive situations on ego depletion and forgiveness were discussed,with 583 college students as the research subjects.The results showed that ego depletion is negatively correlated with forgiveness level(p<0.01).Ego depletion significantly negative predicted forgiveness(R~2=0.058,?<0.001).In severe offensive situation,the effect of ego depletion on forgiveness is significant(?=-1.864,?<0.001),while in mild offensive situation,the effect of ego depletion on forgiveness is not(?=-0.738,?=0.059).That is,in the case of severe offensive situation,the forgiveness level gradually decreases with the increasing of ego depletion.In the case of mild offensive situation,however,the level of forgiveness does not decrease significantly with the increase in ego depletion.In the second study,a behavioral experiment involving 120 college students was carried out to investigate the forgiveness level of individuals with different depletion levels in different offensive situations.The stroop task was used for ego depletion level control and hypothetical situation was used to distinguish the offensive situations.A two factors between-subjects design was applied to investigate the effects of ego depletion and offensive situations on forgiveness levels,with 2(ego depletion:high depletion vs low depletion)×2(offensive situation:severe offense vs mild offense).The results showed that the main effect of ego depletion is not significant while the main effect of the offensive situation is significant(p<0.001,?_p~2=0.158),and the individual forgiveness level in severe offensive situation is significantly lower than that in mild offensive situation.The interaction effect between ego depletion and offensive situation is significant(p=0.002,?_p~2=0.081).The simple slope analyses showed that the forgiveness level of the high depletion group is significantly lower than that of the low depletion group in the severe offensive situation(p=0.023,?_p~2=0.044),while the forgiveness level of the high depletion group is significantly higher than that of the low depletion group in the mild offensive situation(p=0.029,?_p~2=0.040).This indicated that ego depletion has different effects on forgiveness in different situations of interpersonal offense.The third study used a multimedia biofeedback software on 118 college students to investigate the effect of ego depletion level on forgiveness in different offensive situations.The letter"e"task was used to manipulate the level of ego depletion,and 2(ego depletion:high depletion vs low depletion)×2(offensive situation:severe offense vs mild offense)two factors between-subjects design of experiment was used to investigate the physiological basis of the effect of ego depletion and offensive situation on forgiveness level.The results showed that the blood volume pulse(BVP)of the individuals with high ego depletion decrease more and the forgiveness level is lower(p=0.004,?_p~2=0.069).In severe offensive situation,the skin temperature(TEMP)increases smaller(p=0.030,?_p~2=0.040),the blood volume pulse(BVP)decreases more(p=0.022,?_p~2=0.045),and the heart rate(HR)increases more(p=0.012,?_p~2=0.054),that is,the forgiveness level is lower.The interaction effect between ego depletion and the offensive situation is significant.In the case of severe offensive situation,the subjects in the high depletion group has more significant decreases in skin temperature(TEMP)(p<0.001,?_p~2=0.156)and blood volume pulse(BVP)(p<0.001,?_p~2=0.231)than those in the low depletion group,indicating that the high depletion group is less forgiving.In the case of mild offensive situation,subjects in the high depletion group experiences significantly higher skin temperature(TEMP)(p=0.017,?_p~2=0.049)and significantly lower heart rate(HR)(p=0.008,?_p~2=0.061)than those in the low depletion group,suggesting that the high depletion group is more forgiving.It is further verified that ego depletion has different effects on forgiveness in different situations of interpersonal offense.Research conclusions:(1)Ego depletion is negatively correlated with forgiveness.Ego depletion has a significant negative predictive power for forgiveness.The forgiveness level of individuals with high ego depletion is significantly lower than that of individuals with low ego depletion.(2)The offensive situation affects the forgiveness level of individuals,and the forgiveness level of individuals in the severe offense situation is significantly lower than that in the mild offense situation.(3)The effect of different levels of ego depletion on individual forgiveness in different situations of interpersonal offense is not consistent;High ego depletion impedes forgiveness for severe offenses,but promotes forgiveness in mild offensive situations.(4)The skin temperature(TEMP)and the blood volume pulse(BVP)significantly decrease in high ego depletion individuals under severe offense.The skin temperature(TEMP)increases significantly and the heart rate(HR)decreases significantly in the mild offensive situation.