The Perception of Victims Who Choose to Forgive Can Depend Upon Whether Another Themselves Would Have Chosen to Forgive the Transgressor

This study is interested in how victims who forgive their transgressors are perceived. The researchers believe that forgivers are admired more when the observer themselves would have chosen to not forgive rather than to forgive. Through literature review, we were able to build off that information and are proposing a study that manipulates whether the participant would forgive or not while measuring how much the forgiver is emulated and admired. We expect to find that participants admire the forgiver more when they themselves would have chosen not to forgive. This study will reveal why some victims are perceived more positively than other victims. This research will be able to apply to the greater subject of research concerning victims and forgiveness.