It was found that the spouses who forgave their partners were almost twice as likely to report that their partner misbehaved the next day as those who held a grudge.
It may not always be a good idea to forgive your partner for all offences as a new study suggests that newlyweds who forgave their partner's bad behaviour were more likely to face additional bad behaviour in future.
Despite a growing literature on the positive implications of forgiveness and recent efforts to promote forgiveness in marriage, there is reason to believe forgiveness could have yet-unknown negative implications. Forgiveness may increase the likelihood that offenders will offend again by removing unwanted outcomes for those offenders (e.g. criticism, guilt and loneliness) that would otherwise discourage them from repeating their offence.
For the study, researchers asked 135 newlywed American couples to fill out individual relationship diaries every day for a week. The diaries included a questionnaire about whether the person's spouse had done something to upset them, and whether they'd forgiven their spouse for the transgression.
It was found that the spouses who forgave their partners were almost twice as likely to report that their partner misbehaved the next day as those who held a grudge.
However, according to the researchers, the findings don't prove that forgiveness is always bad, or that forgiving someone will make you a doormat.
Despite a growing literature on the positive implications of forgiveness and recent efforts to promote forgiveness in marriage, there is reason to believe forgiveness could have yet-unknown negative implications. Forgiveness may increase the likelihood that offenders will offend again by removing unwanted outcomes for those offenders (e.g. criticism, guilt and loneliness) that would otherwise discourage them from repeating their offence.
For the study, researchers asked 135 newlywed American couples to fill out individual relationship diaries every day for a week. The diaries included a questionnaire about whether the person's spouse had done something to upset them, and whether they'd forgiven their spouse for the transgression.
It was found that the spouses who forgave their partners were almost twice as likely to report that their partner misbehaved the next day as those who held a grudge.
However, according to the researchers, the findings don't prove that forgiveness is always bad, or that forgiving someone will make you a doormat.
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