# Forgiveness
**Forgiveness** is a response to wrongdoing in which a victim gives up, or reduces, the resentment, anger, and desire for revenge directed at a wrongdoer, while still judging the act to have been wrong. In philosophy, the paradigmatic case is a triadic relation among a wrong action, a wrongdoer, and a wronged victim; in social psychology it is defined as a prosocial shift in interpersonal motivations, marked by reduced desires for revenge and avoidance and increased goodwill toward an offender[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/) • [2](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229726000420). The [American Psychological Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-psychological-association) describes it as the voluntary transformation of one's feelings, attitudes, and behavior toward someone who has caused harm, so that one is no longer dominated by resentment[3](https://www.apa.org/topics/forgiveness).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Core definition | A prosocial motivational shift after a transgression: less revenge and avoidance, more benevolence toward the offender[2](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229726000420) • [4](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632) |
| Not the same as | Reconciliation, excusing, pardoning, condoning, or forgetting; most philosophers agree it does not imply release from legal accountability[5](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf) • [6](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/forgiveness/) |
| Strongest correlates | State empathy (r = .51), perceived intent (r = −.49), apology (r = .42), state anger (r = −.41) in a meta-analysis of 175 studies and 26,006 participants[7](https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Fehr_et_al_2010_The_road_to_forgiveness-_A_meta-analytic_synthesis_of_its_situational_and_dispositional_correlates.pdf) |
| History in science | Largely ignored by psychology until recent decades; the John Templeton Foundation funded a research initiative in 1997[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html) • [5](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf) |
| Two processes | Emotional forgiveness (affective change) and decisional forgiveness (a behavioral commitment), which can occur independently[4](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632) |
| Intervention evidence | A brief self-directed workbook intervention promoted forgiveness and reduced depression and anxiety symptoms in a multisite randomized trial across five countries[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11812785/) |
| Development | Preschool children already recognize conditions under which forgiveness should be withheld[2](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229726000420) |
## What forgiveness is, and what it is not
Across fields, scholars broadly agree that forgiveness is an intraindividual process: it occurs within the aggrieved person and does not depend on interaction with the transgressor, which distinguishes it from reconciliation, the acts of goodwill that restore a damaged relationship[4](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632). It is also not excusing, which removes blame because the agent was not at fault; a forgiver moves on while still judging the wrongdoer culpable[10](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2026/entries/forgiveness/). Nor is it pardoning, which only a representative of society such as a judge can grant, or condoning, which involves accepting rather than disapproving of conduct[11](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=dayton1283953274&disposition=inline) • [12](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/forgiveness/).
**Compatibility with punishment.** Most philosophers take forgiveness to be compatible with punishment and therefore distinct from pardon or mercy[6](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/forgiveness/). A victim can release resentment while continuing to seek justice; conversely, resentment itself is not necessarily a negative quality, and can serve self-protection or the defense of the moral and legal order[13](https://academic.oup.com/book/5832/chapter-abstract/149063787). Bishop Butler's early position already held that forgiveness is incompatible with revenge but compatible with sustained proportionate anger[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/).
## History of the concept
Although interpersonal forgiveness is prominent in contemporary moral discourse, it was neither examined nor encouraged by the Ancient Greeks, and [Western philosophy](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-philosophy) largely ignored it until Bishop Butler argued in the early eighteenth century that it is incompatible with revenge[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/). Religious traditions shaped the question differently: many Jews have viewed repentance and atonement as prerequisites for forgiveness, whereas Christians commonly believe forgiveness should be unconditional[5](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf).
**The scientific turn.** For much of the history of modern psychology the topic was largely ignored. [Jean Piaget](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-piaget) discussed forgiveness in 1932 only as it related to the development of moral judgment, and Emerson in 1964 was the first to explore its association with mental health[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html). Few forgiveness studies existed before 1990; research increased sharply when the [John Templeton Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-templeton-foundation) sponsored a 1997 initiative to fund scientific study of forgiveness[5](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf). Even after decades of empirical work, psychologists remain divided about how forgiveness ought to be defined[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html).
## Psychological models and measurement
Psychologists have developed competing accounts. Interpersonal models treat forgiveness as communication between agents; intrapersonal models locate it within one person, as in DiBlasio's decision-based view of forgiveness as an act of the will to let go or hold onto resentment[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html). The most widely used motivational model, associated with Michael E. McCullough, a psychology researcher specializing in prosocial behavior, understands forgiveness as a decrease in motivations to avoid or seek revenge and an increase in benevolent and conciliatory motivations[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html).
Worthington and colleagues distinguish emotional forgiveness, an emotional transformation in which negative emotions are released and positive emotions eventually increase, from decisional forgiveness, a cognitive commitment to regulate unforgiving emotions and behaviors[4](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632). A 2023 review proposes treating forgiveness as a special case of emotion regulation, in which a person sets emotion goals and regulates toward them over time rather than performing a single act[4](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632).
A systematic review of assessment identified 45 measures, grouped into scales of dispositional, episodic, and dyadic forgiveness, plus implicit, behavioral, and biological measures[14](https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000303).
## What predicts forgiveness
A meta-analysis by Ryan Fehr and [Michele J. Gelfand](https://www.edgepedia.org/michele-j-gelfand), organizational behavior researchers at the University of Maryland, synthesized 175 studies with 26,006 participants and organized correlates into victims' cognitions, affect, and constraints after an offense[7](https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Fehr_et_al_2010_The_road_to_forgiveness-_A_meta-analytic_synthesis_of_its_situational_and_dispositional_correlates.pdf). The strongest effects came from the situation rather than the person's disposition: state empathy (r = .51), the offender's intent (r = −.49), apology (r = .42), and state anger (r = −.41) were the notable correlates, while gender (r = .01) and age (r = .06) had negligible effects[7](https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Fehr_et_al_2010_The_road_to_forgiveness-_A_meta-analytic_synthesis_of_its_situational_and_dispositional_correlates.pdf).
Recent experimental work shows that how victims mentally replay an offense matters: recalling a past conflict, people generate more additive counterfactuals ("if only X had happened") than subtractive ones, and additive counterfactuals were associated with greater willingness to take the perpetrator's perspective and to forgive[15](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42275026/).
## Evolutionary and neural perspectives
Reconciliation-based models developed out of research in evolutionary psychology and evolutionary ethics, according to which forgiveness evolved as a mechanism for affirming mutual cooperation between agents after an act of defection[8](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html). On this view, revenge deters future exploitation but carries personal costs such as rumination and social costs such as escalating retaliation; forgiveness inhibits revenge and preserves the long-term advantages of continued cooperation, provided exploitation does not recur[16](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419301976). Game-theoretic work agrees: in the alternating Prisoner's Dilemma, forgiving strategies can incur a short-term loss yet lead to long-term gain, and forgiveness facilitates stable cooperation in the presence of exploitation and noise[17](https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.4256).
Neuroscience links the desire for vengeance to reward-based areas of the brain, implicates prefrontal areas in the inhibition of vengeful feelings, and correlates activity of a theory-of-mind network with assessments of offenders' intentions and blameworthiness[18](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5424269/). A review of this literature argues that the forgiveness system is interconnected with, and inhibits, the phylogenetically older revenge/reward system[16](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419301976).
## Self-forgiveness
Self-forgiveness is treated as a moral repair strategy in which a perpetrator accepts responsibility for wrongdoing and aligns future behavior with positive values, while replacing self-condemning emotions with self-affirming ones[19](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11084121). A dual-process scale validated with 924 military veterans, healthcare workers, and first responders who reported exposure to potentially morally injurious events measures two dimensions: value affirmation, appraising personal responsibility and willingness to make amends, and esteem restoration, accepting oneself as valuable despite one's failures[20](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38730552/). Research on offenders' self-forgiveness emphasizes its dyadic character: genuine self-forgiveness depends on the offender knowing, and knowing that the victim knows, that they share the relevant values[21](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103122001524). A systematic review of interventions to promote self-forgiveness identified 19 eligible articles from an initial pool of 399[19](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11084121).
## Forgiveness across the lifespan and in conflict settings
A study of 544 participants, predominantly White and about half female, tested in 2021, compared how children (ages 5–9), adolescents (ages 11–14), and adults understand three responses to a transgression: forgiveness, punishment, and doing nothing. At all ages participants differentiated the consequences, and forgiveness was associated with more positive and fewer negative outcomes, while with age participants expected fewer positive outcomes overall[22](https://academic.oup.com/chidev/article/95/6/1915/8255392). A developmental review concludes that preschool children already recognize limits on forgiveness and use sociomoral conditions, such as the offender's conduct, to decide when forgiveness is warranted[2](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229726000420).
In contexts of armed conflict, a systematic review covering 30 articles and 35 studies published between 2000 and 2024 found that willingness to forgive is a complex, multidimensional process with implications for mental health, reconciliation, and peacebuilding. Facilitating factors included acknowledgment of harm, apologies, justice measures, religious and cultural beliefs, and guarantees of non-repetition; lack of trust, lack of empathy, and the severity of offenses reduced willingness to forgive[23](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106764).
Research on survivors of [adverse childhood experiences](https://www.edgepedia.org/adverse-childhood-experiences) (ACEs) reached a cautionary set of conclusions from 54 studies: ACEs were associated with reduced forgiveness, survivors with severe abuse histories reported greater difficulty forgiving, and studies revealed harmful effects when survivors felt pressured to forgive, or not to forgive[24](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380251410088).
## Interventions
Controlled trials support specific programs. The REACH forgiveness intervention, tested in a multisite randomized controlled trial with community samples in Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Africa, and Ukraine, used a brief self-directed workbook and promoted forgiveness while reducing depression and anxiety symptoms; its authors suggest it could be widely disseminated as a supplemental therapeutic and preventive approach[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11812785/).
## Ethics: ought one to forgive?
Philosophical discussion centers on three questions: what one must do to forgive, when one is in a position to forgive, and when forgiveness is morally good or praiseworthy[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/). Some philosophers claim forgiveness is elective or gift-like, never obligatory and always permissible for a victim, though others dissent from this view[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/). Some hold that every instance of forgiveness is morally good but that forgiveness is possible only when certain conditions are met, such as the wrongdoer's apology and repentance[25](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/). A few philosophers have gone further and claimed forgiveness is always morally wrong or inferior to alternatives[25](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/).
A related dispute concerns whether forgiving necessarily includes reconciliation. Some philosophers assume it does, which would make it impossible to forgive someone after they have died; most hold the opposing view, that a victim can forgive while failing or refusing to reconcile[25](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/). Empirical work adds that forgiveness is sometimes accompanied by regret, especially when some resentment lingers, forgiveness brings costs to self-interest, or the forgiver reports low religiosity[5](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf).
## References
1. [Forgiveness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (revised 2026)](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/)
2. [Sociomoral caveats to children's selective forgiveness, Developmental Review (2026)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229726000420)
3. [Forgiveness, American Psychological Association](https://www.apa.org/topics/forgiveness)
4. [Brady, Saldanha, & Barclay (2023). Conceptualizing forgiveness: A review and path forward, Journal of Organizational Behavior](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/job.2632)
5. [Exline, Worthington, Hill, & McCullough (2003). Forgiveness and Justice: A Research Agenda, Personality and Social Psychology Review](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Exline-Forgiveness_and_Retribution_in_Justice.pdf)
6. [Norlock, K. J. (2020). Forgiveness, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/forgiveness/)
7. [Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag (2010). The Road to Forgiveness: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis, Psychological Bulletin](https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Fehr_et_al_2010_The_road_to_forgiveness-_A_meta-analytic_synthesis_of_its_situational_and_dispositional_correlates.pdf)
8. [The Science of Forgiveness, Supplement B, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2026)](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/science.html)
9. [International REACH forgiveness intervention: a multisite randomised controlled trial](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11812785/)
10. [Forgiveness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2026 archive), Related Phenomena](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2026/entries/forgiveness/)
11. [Ohio LINK dissertation on forgiveness and pardon (Enright & Fitzgibbons cited)](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=dayton1283953274&disposition=inline)
12. [Forgiveness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 archive), Reconciliation](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/forgiveness/)
13. [Murphy, J. G. (2012). Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Responding to Evil, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/5832/chapter-abstract/149063787)
14. [Worthington, E. L. Jr. et al. (2017). Measuring Forgiveness: A Systematic Review, European Psychologist 22(4)](https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000303)
15. [The effects of counterfactual thinking on unilateral forgiveness, Journal of Experimental Psychology (2026)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42275026/)
16. [Parsing the components of forgiveness: Psychological and neural mechanisms, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419301976)
17. [Forgiver triumphs in alternating Prisoner's Dilemma (2013), arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.4256)
18. [The Neural Systems of Forgiveness: An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5424269/)
19. [Psychological interventions to promote self-forgiveness: a systematic review (2024)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11084121)
20. [Properties of the modified Self-Forgiveness Dual-Process Scale in populations at risk for moral injury (2024)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38730552/)
21. [Does victims' forgiveness help offenders to forgive themselves? The role of meta-perceptions of value consensus, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103122001524)
22. [McLaughlin, Marshall, & McAuliffe (2024). Developing conceptions of forgiveness across the lifespan, Child Development 95(6)](https://academic.oup.com/chidev/article/95/6/1915/8255392)
23. [Willingness to forgive in contexts of armed conflict: A systematic review, Acta Psychologica (2026)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106764)
24. [Kanter & Wortham (2026). Forgiveness and Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Scoping Review](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380251410088)
25. [Forgiveness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2026 archive), Ethics sections](https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/forgiveness/)
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