The effects of counterfactual thinking on unilateral forgiveness: Can victims do it on their own?

Key Points

• This research investigates how different types of counterfactual thinking influence victims' ability to forgive perpetrators independently.
• Conducted three studies to analyze the impact of additive and subtractive counterfactuals on forgiveness.
• Focused on both perpetrator and victim perspectives across various offenses.
• Evaluated moderation effects of responsibility attribution and offense severity.
• Study 2 found that victims using additive counterfactuals showed greater willingness to forgive (p<0.05).
• Study 3 indicated that victim-focused counterfactuals had varying effects based on responsibility attribution (p<0.05).
• No moderation was found for offense severity or temporal distance in studies 2 and 3.