Impact of gender and religiosity on forgiving communication (original) (raw)

Forgiveness and religion have been historically associated. Since religiosity may be helpful in granting forgiveness, the purpose of the current research was to explore how religiosity and gender are related to forgiving communication, specifically to forgiveness-granting strategies and the relationship outcome after forgiveness was granted. A survey of 147 married adults residing in a large U.S. city showed a positive association between religiosity and a nonverbal strategy of expressing forgiveness, regardless of gender. As predicted, religiosity was positively related to a normalized relational outcome after forgiveness was granted. The current study also found gender differences in granting forgiveness with men using the minimizing strategy more often than women, regardless of their level of religiosity. The role of a nonverbal expression of forgiveness among religious people needs to be further explored, as do gender differences in granting forgiveness.