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Feeling forgiven by God can reduce the likelihood of apologizing, psychology study finds
The results of both studies revealed a consistent pattern. The researchers discovered that when people felt more forgiven by God, they also tended to feel more self-forgiven. This connection between divine forgiveness and self-forgiveness was present in both studies, even when considering other factors like the seriousness of the offense or how close they were to the person they hurt.
“I was surprised that our findings were consistent across Christian, Jewish, and Muslim participants,” Ludwig said. “I had expected to see differences among these religious groups, but it appears that experiences of divine forgiveness influence their conflict resolution behavior in similar ways.”
Interestingly, this increased self-forgiveness was linked to a decrease in apology behavior. In both studies, people who reported higher self-forgiveness were less likely to say they would apologize and their emails were judged as showing less remorse, lower quality apologies, and less sincerity. This suggests that when individuals believe they are already forgiven by God, they may feel less need to seek forgiveness or make amends directly with the person they harmed. It’s as if feeling right with God lessens the motivation to set things right with the person they wronged.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672241312265 |
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