Psychology 2011. Vol.2, No.9, 936-940 Copyright © 2011 SciRes. DOI:10.4236/psych.2011.29141 Forgiving Significant Interpersonal Offenses: The Role of Victim/Offender Racial Similarity * Courtney Cornick 1 , Jessica M. Schultz 2 , Benjamin Tallman 3 , Elizabeth M. Altmaier 1,4 1 Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA; 2 Department of Psychology, Augustana College, Rock Island, USA; 3 Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Chicago, USA; 4 Department of Community and Behavioral Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA. Email: Elizabeth-altmaier@uiowa.edu Received August 17 th , 2011; revised September 20 th , 2011; accepted October 22 nd , 2011. The influence of victim/offender racial similarity on victim forgiveness was investigated in a study of interper- sonal transgressions. It was hypothesized that racial similarity between victim and offender would influence for- giveness only for transgressions that were less distressing for the victim. Participants were 104 adults (45 Black and 59 White) who provided a narrative description of a significant interpersonal transgression they had experi- enced and completed measures of transgression-related distress and forgiveness. Forgiveness was measured as positive (benevolence) and negative (revenge, avoidance) motivations toward the offender. For negative motive- tions, revenge and avoidance, there was no effect of racial similarity: more severe distress was associated with less forgiveness for all victim/offender pairings. However, the results revealed a significant interaction of vic- tim/offender racial similarity and distress for positive motivations: Black victims reported increased benevolence towards Black offenders after more distressing transgressions. Victims in other racial combinations reported re- duced benevolence for more distressing transgressions. In group favoring of Black offenders by Black victims may be an unexplored aspect of forgiveness. Little research has addressed the potential influence of context on interpersonal forgiveness, and this study suggests that these influences may play an important role. Keywords: Forgiveness, Race, Cultural Psychology, Counseling Introduction McCullough et al. (1998) defined forgiveness in motivational terms: the victim releases negative motivations (e.g., revenge) towards the offender and assumes positive motivations (e.g., goodwill) in the aftermath of an interpersonal transgression. Similarly, Enright and Fitzgibbons (2000) suggest that forgive- ness involves the victim overcoming negative affect and judg- ment towards the offender and instead viewing him or her with empathy or compassion. However, it is important to consider forgiveness in a larger context than that encompassing solely two people, particularly when a larger perspective suggests societal or contextual influ- ences on a victim’s forgiveness response. For example, Digeser (2001) argued that oppressed groups experience a historical burden of transgressions. Thus, forgiveness may be more diffi- cult for oppressed persons than for persons with a history of privilege. This difficulty may be especially present in person- to-person forgiveness when the offender has a history of privi- lege and the victim has a history of oppression. Race is an area of clear differences between groups in terms of privilege and oppression. Unfortunately, little is known about the role of race in for- giveness. Erguner-Tekinalp (2007) studied Black college stu- dents’ perceptions of historical racism and personally experi- enced racially offensive acts. When Black students perceived societal remorse and motivations for reparation, they reported more forgiveness of historical racial transgressions. However, these societal influences did not predict forgiveness for person- ally experienced acts. When the context of racial similarity of victim to offender is taken into account, forgiveness may be altered. Miller (2001) summarized research that suggests a victim will find an offender’s action more disrespectful if the offender belongs to the same social group as the victim. Distantly related research that explores whether culturally different groups are able to forgive one another is relevant to the current study. One of the primary examples of intergroup forgiveness was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. This commission was created to assist with repa- ration to, and the rehabilitation and restoration of human and civil dignity of, victims of violations of human rights following the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act in 1995. Research following the actions of the Commission dem- onstrated that even in the context of profoundly severe transgressions, such as murder and torture, victims of one race were able to forgive offenders of another (Kaminer, Stein, Mbanga, & Zungu-Dirwayi, 2001; Stein et al., 2008). Forgiveness is predicted by many factors. For example, hav- ing an offender apologize for the transgression is positively related to the victim forgiving him or her (Girard, Mullet, & Calahan, 2002). Transgression severity is also related to for- giveness, with more severe transgressions predicting less for- giveness. However, researchers have not analyzed the role of racial similarity versus dissimilarity. The above discussion suggests that people of varying races are able to forgive each other, although the influence of past historical wrongs may continue. If one considers research on racial micro aggressions (see Sue et al., 2007) in combination with privilege and oppres- sion, it would be reasonable to expect that a transgression * This research was supported in part by a Summer Research Opportunity Fellowship awarded to the first author by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.