Schedule of Events | Symposia

Phenomenological and biophysiological differences between forgiven and not forgiven remembered wrongdoings

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Gabriela Fernández-Miranda¹ (gabriela.fernandez@duke.edu), Leonard Faul², Caroline Howard¹, Annika Socia¹, Kaylee Miceli¹, Kevin LaBar¹, De Brigard Felipe¹; ¹Duke University, ²Boston College

Forgiveness is a valuable tool for overcoming negative emotions and healing relationships after interpersonal conflict. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Recent evidence suggests that forgiving involves a process of emotional fading, such that remembering wrongdoings is experienced with less negative valence and lower emotional intensity, while the episodic details of the memory are not forgotten[1]. In this study, we used self-report and psychophysiological measures to evaluate emotional responses and the recollection of episodic details of remembered wrongdoings as a function of forgiveness. Using a within-subject design, participants were asked to silently recall two neutral memories and two memories of wrongdoings while measuring electrodermal activity (EDA), and corrugator and zygomaticus electromyography (EMG). We also assessed their recollective experiences and degree of forgiveness toward the perpetrators with self-report. Using both, biophysiological and self-report measures, we found that memories of wrongdoings, compared to neutral memories, have greater negativity and higher emotional intensity associated with the time of the event and during recall. However, no differences were observed in the recollection of episodic details. Critically, and consistent with the emotional fading view, memories of forgiven wrongdoings were recalled with less negative valence compared to unforgiven wrongs. Yet, once again, we found no difference in the recollection of episodic details. We discuss the implications of these results for extant psychological theories of forgiveness and suggest possible memory mechanisms that may underlie people’s tendencies to emotionally reassess their memories of past wrongdoings when forgiving perpetrators.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic