A cognitive factor to escalate conflict is a "victim bias." Each participant perceives that he/she is a victim and the other is a harm-doer, thereby intensifying confrontational stance. To break off the vicious circle, most people believe that forgiveness is necessary. The matter is how we can prompt forgiving actions among people in conflict. In order to answer the question, we must know what motivates forgiveness among people. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to identify motives of forgiveness by a questionnaire study on conflict and forgiveness. McCullough defined forgiveness as prosocial change in the relationship with a harm-doer at the cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels. For empirical research, it is further crucial to distinguish internal forgiveness and external (behavioral) forgiveness. The former is to decided to refrain from punishment against a harm-doer and the latter is to actually behave in a non-punitive way. Our previous finding that there were discrepancies between them suggests that internal and external forgiveness are determined by different sets of motives. Authentic motives are those that prompt forgiveness being rewarded only by inner satisfaction, that is, personal belief and ideals regarding forgiveness, and instrumental motives are those that are expectation of external rewards, that is, concerns for social harmony and self-presentation. We assume that internal forgiveness is prompted by the authentic motives and external forgiveness is prompted by the instrumental motives. 171 Japanese students responded to our questionnaire including 30 items to measure motives of forgiveness. A factor analysis provided 7 dimensions of the motives: commitment, justice, personal belief, avoidance of conflict escalation, personal identity, minimization of conflict, and empathy. The result shows forgiveness includes both authentic and instrumental motives.
TAKADA Naomi, OHBUCHI Ken-ichi
