Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022 Mar;122(3):469-492. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000367. Epub 2021 Jun 17.
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. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
日常的虐待行为可能会威胁到人们的基本人性意识。受害者在受到冒犯后，能否恢复人性意识？如果可以，该如何恢复？四项研究将宽恕和复仇作为对受害者的回应进行了比较。在研究 1 中，参与者回忆了他们原谅或报复伤害他们的人的时刻。在研究 2 和 3 中，他们想象自己被同事伤害，然后原谅或报复他。在研究 4 中，他们给一个冒犯他们的人写了一封原谅或复仇的信。每种方法都表明，与复仇相比，宽恕更能使人重新人性化；事实上，宽恕产生的人性化感觉几乎超过了未受害参与者的水平（研究 3）。研究 3 和 4 还提供了证据，表明将自己的宽恕视为道德有助于恢复人性意识。研究 4 进一步揭示了宽恕后自我人性化恢复的重要后续预测后果——自我伤害减少、对人类社区的归属感更强，以及道德身份的重要性更大。这项工作扩展了关于宽恕益处的研究，强调了受害者在遭受非人性化冒犯后修复人性的能力。（美国心理协会，2022）
