The Effect of Significant Other‘s Advice on Forgiveness in Chinese Culture.

本研究目的在探討關係他人在華人寬恕中扮演的角色為何？過往文獻在探討寬恕的影響因素上，未考量文化特色，也多聚焦在傷害者與被害者身上，筆者認為，重視關係的華人，在探討寬恕時應考量傷害事件之外的關係他人影響。研究一主要從不同的關係他人與事件性質切入，探討個人在不同的傷害情境時，關係他人的影響力為何。113名實驗參與者隨機分派至3(事件性質：物質/相處/牽涉他者)×3(關係他人意見：好友/長輩家人/無意見)混合設計。以寬恕程度為依變項進行二因子分析，結果顯示關係他人意見與事件性質有交互作用，個人在面對具客觀判斷的物質事件性質時，較不會受關係他人的意見影響，但在有關情感傷害的相處事件及牽涉他者的事件上，個人則明顯受到好友意見的影響。我們認為這或許是因為好友通常與我們價值觀相近，因此他們的意見可能更具參考的價值。研究二以回憶自身傷害事件來增加實驗的真實性，並再深入釐清關係他人影響力的本質，88位實驗參與者隨機分派至3(寬恕傾向：已寬恕/未寬恕/無)×2(好友寬恕建議：有/無意見)完全受試者間設計，交互作用效果顯示，關係他人在個人寬恕決定中扮演著主導性而非助長性的影響，原先寬恕傾向不同的個體，會順應關係他人的意見來調整原先的寬恕決定。In this study, we investigated the possible impacts of significant others on the decision to forgive in Chinese people. Past research mainly examined the effect of victim’s attributions of offender’s motivation on forgiveness. We suggested that Chinese people have interdependent self construal and emphasize on relationalism, and therefore significant other’s opinions might play an important role in the decision to forgive. In experiment 1, one hundred and thirteen participants were asked to imagine that they were victims of three types of hurting scenarios (i.e., money loss, relationship damage, and involving other people) which were caused by their partner and then were randomly assigned to one of the following advice situations (advice from parents vs. from a good friend vs. no advice-control condition). The degree of forgiveness was submitted to an advice condition by hurt scenarios ANOVA, with the hurting scenarios as a within-subjects variable. We found that advices from a good friend worked especially well in the relationship damage and involving other people situations, participants had significantly higher level of forgiveness than those who received no advice. Experiment 2 aimed at examining the nature of advice from significant other. Eighty eight participants were asked to write down the most harmful interaction event they had previous experienced, and then were randomly assigned to a 3(bogus forgiveness inclination: already forgive/not forgive yet /control) × 2(advice condition: false forgiveness advice from a good friend/ no advice)between-subject design. The result indicated that, instead of facilitating the decision of forgiveness, significant others played a dominant role on the decision to forgive. That is, our decision of forgiveness could be altered by the advice of the significant others