Are We Predisposed to Forgive?

Summary: A new study reports our cognitive flexibility in judging those who wrong us may shed light on both the human tendency to forgive, and explain why people hold on to those who continue to wrong them.

Source: Yale.

When assessing the moral character of others, people cling to good impressions but readily adjust their opinions about those who have behaved badly, according to new research.

This flexibility in judging transgressors might help explain both how humans forgive — and why they sometimes stay in bad relationships, said the study’s authors.

The research — conducted by psychologists at Yale, University of Oxford, University College London, and the International School for Advanced Studies — appeared Sept. 17 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

“The brain forms social impressions in a way that can enable forgiveness,” said Yale psychologist Molly Crockett, senior author of the paper. “Because people sometimes behave badly by accident, we need to be able to update bad impressions that turn out to be mistaken. Otherwise, we might end relationships prematurely and miss out on the many benefits of social connection.”

Across a series of experiments, more than 1500 subjects observed the choices of two strangers who faced a moral dilemma: whether to inflict painful electric shocks on another person in exchange for money. While the “good” stranger mostly refused to shock another person for money, the “bad” stranger tended to maximize their profits despite the painful consequences. The subjects were asked their impressions of the strangers’ moral character and how confident they were about those impressions.

Subjects rapidly formed stable, positive impressions of the good stranger and were highly confident of their impressions. However, the subjects were far less confident that the bad stranger was truly bad and could change their minds quickly. For instance, when the bad stranger occasionally made a generous choice, subjects’ impressions immediately improved — until they witnessed the stranger’s next transgression.”

a person writing sorry
The research also may eventually help shed light on psychiatric disorders involving social difficulties, such as Borderline Personality Disorder. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

This pattern of impression updating may provide some insight into why people sometimes hold on to bad relationships, Crockett said. “We think our findings reveal a basic predisposition towards giving others, even strangers, the benefit of the doubt. The human mind is built for maintaining social relationships, even when partners sometimes behave badly.”

The research also may eventually help shed light on psychiatric disorders involving social difficulties, such as Borderline Personality Disorder.

“The ability to accurately form impressions of others’ character is crucial for the development and maintenance of healthy relationships” said Jenifer Siegel, an Oxford doctoral student and lead author of the paper. “We have developed new tools for measuring impression formation, which could help improve our understanding of relational dysfunction.”

About this neuroscience research article

Funding: The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Source: Bill Hathaway – Yale
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Beliefs about bad people are volatile” by Jenifer Z. Siegel, Christoph Mathys, Robb B. Rutledge & Molly J. Crockett in Nature Human Behavior. Published September 17 2018.
doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0425-1

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Yale”Are We Predisposed to Forgive?.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 17 September 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/forgiveness-predisposition-9877/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Yale(2018, September 17). Are We Predisposed to Forgive?. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved September 17, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/forgiveness-predisposition-9877/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Yale”Are We Predisposed to Forgive?.” https://neurosciencenews.com/forgiveness-predisposition-9877/ (accessed September 17, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Beliefs about bad people are volatile

People form moral impressions rapidly, effortlessly and from a remarkably young age. Putatively ‘bad’ agents command more attention and are identified more quickly and accurately than benign or friendly agents. Such vigilance is adaptive, but can also be costly in environments where people sometimes make mistakes, because incorrectly attributing bad character to good people damages existing relationships and discourages forming new relationships. The ability to accurately infer the moral character of others is critical for healthy social functioning, but the computational processes that support this ability are not well understood. Here, we show that moral inference is explained by an asymmetric Bayesian updating mechanism in which beliefs about the morality of bad agents are more uncertain (and therefore more volatile) than beliefs about the morality of good agents. This asymmetry seems to be a property of learning about immoral agents in general, as we also find greater uncertainty for beliefs about the non-moral traits of bad agents. Our model and data reveal a cognitive mechanism that permits flexible updating of beliefs about potentially threatening others, a mechanism that could facilitate forgiveness when initial bad impressions turn out to be inaccurate. Our findings suggest that negative moral impressions destabilize beliefs about others, promoting cognitive flexibility in the service of cooperative but cautious behaviour.

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