Rehumanizing the Self After Victimization: The Roles of Forgiveness Versus Revenge

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology 2022-03, Vol.122 (3), p.469-492
• Main Authors: Schumann, Karina, Walton, Gregory M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Belonging; Conflict; Crime Victims; Emotions; Female; Forgiveness; Human; Humans; Interpersonal Relationships; Male; Mental Recall; Morality; Morals; Retaliation; Revenge; Self concept; Self destructive behavior; Self injury; Victimization; Victims
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000367

Everyday maltreatments can threaten people's basic sense of being human. Can victims restore their sense of humanness after it has been damaged by an offense and, if so, how? Four studies compared forgiving and taking revenge as responses to victimization. In Study 1, participants recalled a time they either forgave or took revenge against someone who had hurt them. In Studies 2 and 3, they imagined being victimized by a coworker and then either forgiving or taking revenge against him. In Study 4, they wrote either a forgiving or a vengeful letter to a transgressor who had committed an offense against them. Each methodology revealed that, compared with revenge, forgiveness was more effective at rehumanizing the self; indeed, forgiveness produced feelings of humanness that nearly exceeded levels experienced by nonvictimized participants (Study 3). Studies 3 and 4 also provided evidence that perceiving 1's forgiveness as moral contributes to a restored sense of humanness. Study 4 further revealed important downstream predictive consequences of a restored sense of self-humanity following forgiveness-less self-harm, a greater sense of belonging to the human community, and greater importance of one's moral identity. Extending past research on the benefits of forgiveness, this work highlights the agency that victims have to repair their humanness in the wake of a dehumanizing offense.