Premium
Tough love: The behavior control justice motive facilitates forgiveness in valued relationships
Author(s) -
STRELAN PETER,
VAN PROOIJEN JANWILLEM
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/pere.12142
Subject(s) - forgiveness , economic justice , psychology , social psychology , interpersonal communication , context (archaeology) , interpersonal relationship , control (management) , value (mathematics) , recall , association (psychology) , cognitive psychology , law , political science , management , psychotherapist , paleontology , economics , biology , machine learning , computer science
When individuals in valued relationships are transgressed against, how are they able to protect the relationship while at the same time restore justice for themselves? Study 1 ( N = 137) employed a recall design to demonstrate that when victims restore justice, the well‐established association between relationship value and forgiveness can be explained indirectly through a motivation to control future behavior. Studies 2 ( N = 122) and 3 ( N = 115) replicated this finding using experimental designs, manipulating two distinct facets of valued relationships: the fact that they are continuing and close. There were no indirect effects for two alternative justice motives, just deserts and revenge. We discuss implications for relations between justice and forgiveness in the context of interpersonal relationships.