Gender Differences in Response to Experimental Forgiveness Prompts: Do Men Show Stronger Responses Than Women?

Abstract

After recalling interpersonal offenses, undergraduates (106 women, 79 men) were assigned to a control condition or one emphasizing a forgiveness motivation: personal benefit, moral obligation, or goodwill. All three forgiveness conditions facilitated men's forgiveness, although the goodwill condition was most effective. Women's responses did not differ across conditions. Another study of undergraduates (106 men, 112 women) revealed that relative to men, women put more effort into forgiveness before the study, and they were more likely to view forgiveness as a process requiring healing. Study 2's findings may partly explain why men show greater response than women to experimental forgiveness prompts.

Notes

¹We do not claim this to be an exhaustive list of motives for forgiving. For example, another potentially important motive may involve forgiving for relational reasons (e.g., Fincham et al., 2002; Finkel, Rusbult, Kumashiro, & Hannon, 2002). We did not include this motive in Study 1 because of its potential overlap with the three other motives that were examined here. Specifically (a) honoring relationship commitments might be considered a form of moral obligation, (b) repairing and continuing a valued relationship could be considered a personal benefit, and (c) empathy and goodwill-based concerns might be especially natural in close relationships. Furthermore, we did not want to assume here that the relationship in question could in fact continue (e.g., death of the transgressor is one potential situation in which relationship continuation is not necessarily applicable) or that the participant desired to continue the relationship.

^a n = 52.

^b n = 53.

^c n = 42.

^d n = 38.

^e Higher TRIM scores indicate greater unforgiveness.

†p < .10. *p < .05. **p < .01.

Note. DV = dependent variable; TRIM = Transgression Relevant Interpersonal Motivations Inventory.

^a Higher TRIM scores indicate greater unforgiveness.

^b F tests are for a 2 (gender) × 4 (condition) analysis of variance predicting (TRIM) scores.

†p ≤ .10; *p ≤ .05; **p ≤ .01; ***p ≤ .001.

²To save space and reduce complexity, Table 2 reports results only for the whole TRIM. However, it is worth noting that when we examined the TRIM subscales, a significant Gender × Condition interaction was found for the Benevolence subscale, F(3, 177) = 3.55, p = .02, partial η² = .06, and a marginally significant interaction was found for the Avoidance subscale, F(3, 177) = 2.63, p = .05, partial η² = .04. Patterns were similar to those shown in Table 2, with men in the goodwill condition showing the most forgiving responses. The Gender × Condition interaction was not significant for the Vengefulness subscale, F(3, 177) = 1.56, p = .20, partial η² = .03.

Note. TRIM = Transgression Relevant Interpersonal Motivations Inventory.

^a 0 = male, 1 = female.

^b Higher TRIM scores indicate greater unforgiveness. Ranges: Full TRIM: 18–90, Revenge: 5–25, Avoidance: 7–35, Benevolence: 6–30.

†p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01.