Forgiveness: what's mood got to do with it?

The present study investigated the effects of mood on participants' forgiveness levels. Although many factors have been explored as determinants of forgiveness, the present study is the first to investigate how mood may influence a victims' decision to forgive. Participants were randomly assigned to a positive or negative mood condition and then experienced the same experimentally-induced transgression via a simulated Internet word completion game. Mood and forgiveness were positively correlated with each other; participants in positive moods reported more forgiveness than participants in negative moods. However, attempts to experimentally manipulate mood failed, making it difficult to determine a directional relationship between mood and forgiveness. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.