The Forgiveness Implicit Association Test

- Reports the development of the Forgiveness IAT
- Forgiveness IAT predicts spontaneous transgression-specific forgiveness.
- Testing supports double-dissociation model in IAT research.
- Forgiveness IAT generally resistant to socially desirable responding.
- People implicitly prefer forgiveness to punitive responding.

Across nine studies involving N = 1174 participants, we report the development and testing of the Forgiveness Implicit Association Test (IAT). We identify appropriate contrast categories and word content (Studies 1-3); address issues related to implicit-explicit convergence (Studies 4 and 5); and test a double dissociation model to examine the conditions under which the Forgiveness IAT predicts transgression-specific forgiveness (Studies 6-9). We also conducted meta-analyses to examine the extent to which the Forgiveness IAT is resistant to socially desirable responding, relative to self-report measures; and the extent to which individuals implicitly prefer forgiveness to several punitive alternatives (e.g., revenge). The Forgiveness IAT appears to be a good complementary measure to existing trait-level self-report forgiveness measures.