Although previous research shows that relationship closeness plays a central role in an individual’s willingness to forgive an offender, it is based exclusively on data from Western, individualistic cultures. In the current study, the authors examined the association between relationship closeness and forgiveness across six countries, including both traditionally individualistic—Italy, the Netherlands, the United States—and collectivistic cultures—Japan, China (and one country, Turkey, with both individualistic and collectivistic features). Results demonstrated that, cross-culturally, there was a robust positive association between closeness toward the offender and level of forgiveness, both for trait-forgiveness and offense-specific forgiveness. However, this association was weaker in the collectivistic countries, which may suggest that strong norms in these countries to maintain social harmony may partly weaken the role of closeness in forgiveness. Overall, the present findings are discussed in terms of
the possible evolutionary origins of forgiveness and the role of individualism/collectivism in forgiveness.
（対人葛藤を効果的に解決する心理学的な方策として寛容性が挙げられる。寛容性は各国において様々な研究が行われており、またその宗教的背景から各文化で概念の統一がなされていない状況である。そこで、オランダ、イタリア、日本、アメリカ、中国において、寛容性についてどのような概念形成が行われているのか、また、寛容性が持っているとされる対人的効果が各文化において共通するものなのかどうかを検討した。）
pp. 443-451
Johan C. Karremans, Camillo Regalia, Giorgia Paleari, Frank D. Fincham, Ming Cui, Naomi Takada, Ken-Ichi Ohbuchi, Kari Terzino, Susan E. Cross, and Ayse K. Uskul.
