Offender Variables: Unique Predictors of Benevolence, Avoidance, and Revenge?

Abstract Past research on interpersonal forgiveness has emphasized traits of the betrayed partner (e.g., forgivingness, empathy, narcissism) or relationship factors (e.g., relational closeness) in predicting forgiveness, but has rarely considered characteristics of offenders. The current project examined the unique contribution of offenders’ personality over and above established predictors of forgiveness (e.g., relational closeness to offender, betrayal severity, forgivingness, narcissism) as assessed by outcomes on the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) inventory. It was expected that offender traits (such as empathy, Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) would account for additional, unique variance in predicting forgiveness. Results for TRIM-Benevolence, Avoidance, and Revenge supported the study’s hypotheses, indicating that victim perceptions of offender personality also are important in predicting forgiveness.