Abstract
The present paper explored the idea that forgiveness of others may be related with the victims’ individual differences in three motivational factors, as described in the regulatory mode theory (Higgins et al. 2003) and in the need for cognitive closure theory (Kruglanski 2004): (1) individuals’ tendencies towards psychological motion (as captured in the locomotion construct); (2) individuals’ tendencies towards evaluation and comparison (as captured in the assessment construct); and (3) individuals’ sensitivity to epistemic uncertainty (as captured in the need for closure construct). More specifically, we expected and found that assessment and need for cognitive closure (NFC), through different potential mechanisms (i.e., keeping in mind past transgressions in high assessment; and avoiding epistemic uncertainty in high NFC), are negatively related to peoples’ propensity for forgiveness of others, while locomotion is positively related to it by motivating forward movement. The implications of the results are also discussed with reference to the motivational correlates of forgiveness of others.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
To further explore the differential and unique effects of locomotion, assessement and NFC on forgiveness of others we also tested the two and three-way interaction effects between them. Results of this moderated multiple regression analysis did not reveal any significant interaction effects. Importantly, however, consistent with our main hypotheses, the positive relationship between forgiveness of others and locomotion (β = .16, t = 2.15, p = .03), and the negative relationship between forgiveness of others and assessment (β = −.44, t = −6.74, p < .001), and NFC (β = −.40, t = −5.46, p < .001) remained significant.
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The present study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Department of Developmental and Socialization Processes (University of Rome “La Sapienza” under protocol 63–11/23, titled: “The influence of Regulatory Mode Orientations on Forgiveness”); and was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards for studies involving human participants.
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Pica, G., Jaume, L.C. & Pierro, A. Let’s go forward, I forgive you! On motivational correlates of interpersonal forgiveness. Curr Psychol 41, 6786–6794 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01180-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01180-7