Trait forgiveness correlates with positive emotions and reduced fear and hostility

Evidence

Individuals high in TF tend to experience more positive interpersonal emotions, such as empathy (Berry et al., 2005) and sympathy (Lee, 2009), and less negative emotions, such as vengeance and hostility (Thompson et al., 2005), than those individuals low in TF. Because TF is a positive interpersonal emotion that is also linked to fear reduction (Witvliet et al., 2008), and because Muslims are stereotypically associated with violence against Americans (Gottschalk & Greenberg, 2008), we expected a measure of TF to be negatively correlated with the IS. — Sherman A. Lee, Chelsea A. Reid, Stephen D. Short, Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Ruth Yeh, and Matthew L. Campbell, Fear of Muslims, 87

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains trait forgiveness as a generalized propensity to forgive transgressors, tied to empathy over vengeance.