Applying the intentional forgetting process to forgiveness

• This paper investigates the effect of intentional forgetting on forgiveness.
• The process of intentional forgetting can promote forgiveness.
• Simply perceiving the information as not important does not promote forgiveness.

The current research tests the hypothesis that the cognitive process of intentional forgetting can be applied to promote forgiveness. In three experiments, participants read stories set in second person point of view sentence by sentence. Each story included a target conflict sentence. After each sentence, participants saw a cue indicating forget or remember (Experiment 1, n = 89) or important or not important (Experiment 2, n = 123) or control cue (Experiment 3, n = 198). Findings revealed that, among participants who remembered the transgression, being told to intentionally forget the transgression led to increased forgiveness (Experiments 1 & 3). However, being told that the transgression was not important had no effect on forgiveness (Experiment 2). Overall, results are consistent with the hypothesis that an active process of intentional forgetting (as opposed to a passive process of disregarding unimportant information) can promote forgiveness. The interpersonal and clinical applications of these findings are discussed.