Forgiveness: Communicative Implications for Social Relationships

Abstract

In the last decade, psychologists, philosophers, and, most recently, communication scholars generated a significant body of research focusing on responses to relational injury. Forgiveness is one such response that has profound possibilities for affecting relationships of couples, groups, families, organizations, and nations. The following essay overviews the extant literature on forgiveness, from historical understandings to more recent social science-based and philosophical conceptualizations. We specifically emphasize the role of communication in the forgiveness process and offer a communication-based definition of forgiveness. The essay concludes by developing a necessary research agenda focusing on the communication implications of studying forgiveness.