Direct suffering within conflict suppresses forgiveness, but friendship contact still promotes it

Evidence

Our second study revealed the powerful moderating role of measures of how closely “affected” by the conflict our respondents were (experience of The Troubles and the neighborhood violence index). Our subjective measure of experience of The Troubles revealed less forgiveness and trust among those who had suffered most; yet, there are some grounds for optimism, in that contact with friends was significantly correlated with forgiveness in both subgroups. Relatedly, levels of trust and forgiveness were lower among respondents living in areas that had experienced high levels of sectarian violence. For this measure, however, the contact results were more pessimistic: those who had suffered most reported less contact with outgroup friends. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 109

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s core question of whether contact can reverse glorification even amid high subjective suffering — here contact with friends correlates with forgiveness even in the worst-affected subgroup, suggesting reversibility, whereas context with objectively violent neighborhoods does not. — connects to: Intergroup contact predicts forgiveness-related attitudes even in those who suffered sectarian conflict. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 2; Outgroup friendship may predict forgiveness toward that outgroup — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 73; Outgroup friendship contact correlates with forgiveness, trust, and perspective-taking across both religious groups — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 83 (+1 more)

Related

• Outgroup friendship may predict forgiveness toward that outgroup (similarity 0.88)
• Intergroup contact predicts forgiveness-related attitudes even in those who suffered sectarian conflict. (similarity 0.88)
• Outgroup friendship contact correlates with forgiveness, trust, and perspective-taking across both religious groups (similarity 0.87)
• Contact predicts forgiveness only for Catholics, while ingroup identification inhibits it only for Protestants (similarity 0.82)
• Intense intergroup conflict overrides interpersonal friendships between opponents (similarity 0.79)
• Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens — Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and Experience of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland (similarity 0.78)
• Cross-group friendship is the most effective intergroup contact form for reconciliation. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Intense intergroup conflict overrides interpersonal friendships between opponents #contradicts (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2677