The Key to Forgiveness?

The role of post-transgression trust.

Maintaining a close relationship is not an easy task. It works best when two individual’s meet each other expectations. Relationships require constant negotiation, tons of empathy, and the willingness to forgive a partner when inevitable disappointments come to light.

Sometimes, forgiving is crucial to maintaining a healthy relationship because no matter how compatible two people are, there will be times when one partner acts in ways that go against the other’s wishes. It’s not realistic for two people to always be on the same page and never let the other down.

This often leads to loss of trust, that act as a serious threat. Essential forgiveness includes relinquishing hurt emotions, not clutching resentment, and making moves to re-build up a feeling of closeness and closeness.

A study that mainly focused on how forgiveness plays in our close relationships, suggests that being able to forgive a partner depends on a host of factors. The factors are the severity of the betrayal, the degree to which the betrayal was intentional, the resourcefulness of the offender, the sincerity of the apology offered, and the willingness of the harmed partner to understand the reasons why the betrayal occurred.

Scientists conducted three different studies, which employes three different methodological approaches to test multiple mediation models.

The first study involves an experimental, prospective design, the 2nd study involves an experimental design embedded within a hypothetical scenario and 3rd involved a correlational recall design.

Across all three studies, the level of trust a person has in a partner after the transgression played an outsized role in the process of forgiveness.

Scientists found that people who see their partner caring, dependable, and predictable are more likely to grant forgiveness. The persevering view of trust was more critical than the greater part of alternate contemplations analyzed, for example, the seriousness of the selling out or the sort of expression of remorse advertised.

Scientists noted, “Notably, trust played the dominant mediating roll over and above many robust transgression-specific predictors of forgiveness, specifically, hurtfulness, intent, apology, empathy, rumination, and sympathy.”

“This outcome is notable for two inter-related reasons. First, we were able to discount the latter variables as viable alternative mediators. Second, each of these variables is significantly associated with trust.”

These results have important theoretical and practical implications. If you’ve been betrayed and are struggling with forgiveness, it may help to consider the extent to which you think your partner cares about you.

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