Political Humility and Forgiveness of a Political Hurt or Offense

Abstract

The political climate in the United States is turbulent. The current study examined how (a) one’s own political humility and (b) one’s perceptions of the political humility of another person affect one’s willingness to forgive another person for a political hurt or offense. Participants (N = 494) reported a recent political conflict and reported their forgiveness of the transgressor of this political hurt. Both the participant’s political humility and perceptions of the offender’s political humility were positively associated with forgiveness, whereas political commitment was negatively associated with forgiveness. Moreover, political humility buffered the negative relationship between political commitment and forgiveness. We conclude by discussing limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical applications.

Keywords

virtues positive psychology interpersonal

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