Abstract
Previous studies have explored the neural bases of forgiveness, however, the neural associations of decisional and emotional forgiveness remain unclear. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to investigate the neural associations of individual differences in decisional and emotional forgiveness among healthy volunteers (256 participants, 85 males). The results of the ReHo analysis showed that decisional forgiveness was positively correlated with the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Furthermore, emotional forgiveness was positively correlated with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and left supramarginal gyrus (SMG). The results of the FC analysis showed that decisional forgiveness was positively associated with the FC strength between the left IPL and left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and negatively correlated with the FC strength among the left IPL, right superior temporal gyrus (STG), and left SMG. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between emotional forgiveness and FC strength between the left SMG and right IPL. These findings suggest an association between decisional and emotional forgiveness and spontaneous brain activity in brain regions related to empathy, emotion regulation, and cognitive control.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All requests for raw and analyzed data and materials are reviewed by the author to verify if the request is subject to any intellectual property or confidentiality obligations. The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Apperly, I. A. (2012). What is theory of mind? Concepts, cognitive processes and individual differences. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(5), 825–839. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2012.676055.
Baskin, T. W., & Enright, R. D. (2004). Intervention studies on forgiveness: A meta-analysis. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82(1), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00288.x.
Bono, G., McCullough, M. E., & Root, L. M. (2008). Forgiveness, feeling connected to others, and well-being: Two longitudinal studies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(2), 182–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167207310025.
Brown, R. P. (2003). Measuring individual differences in the tendency to forgive: Construct validity and links with depression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(6), 759–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029006008.
Brüne, M., Juckel, G., & Enzi, B. (2013). An eye for an eye? Neural correlates of retribution and forgiveness. PloS One, 8(8), e73519. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073519.
Buades-Rotger, M., Engelke, C., Beyer, F., Keevil, B. G., Brabant, G., & Krämer, U. M. (2016). Endogenous testosterone is associated with lower amygdala reactivity to angry faces and reduced aggressive behavior in healthy young women. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38538.
Buhle, J. T., Silvers, J. A., Wager, T. D., Lopez, R., Onyemekwu, C., Kober, H., & Ochsner, K. N. (2014). Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex, 24(11), 2981–2990. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht154.
Cheadle, A. C., & Toussaint, L. L. (2015). Forgiveness and physical health in healthy populations. Forgiveness and health (pp. 91–106). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9993-5_7.
Chester, D. S., Eisenberger, N. I., Pond Jr, R. S., Richman, S. B., Bushman, B. J., & DeWall, C. N. (2014). The interactive effect of social pain and executive functioning on aggression: An fMRI experiment. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(5), 699–704. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nst038.
Chi, P., Tang, Y., Worthington, E. L., Chan, C. L., Lam, D. O., & Lin, X. (2019). Intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of forgiveness following spousal infidelity: A stress and coping perspective. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 75(10), 1896–1915. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22825.
Cieslik, E. C., Mueller, V. I., Eickhoff, C. R., Langner, R., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2015). Three key regions for supervisory attentional control: Evidence from neuroimaging meta-analyses. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 48, 22–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.11.003.
Corradi-Dell’Acqua, C., Tusche, A., Vuilleumier, P., & Singer, T. (2016). Cross-modal representations of first-hand and vicarious pain, disgust and fairness in insular and cingulate cortex. Nature Communications, 7(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10904.
Cui, Z., Su, M., Li, L., Shu, H., & Gong, G. (2018). Individualized prediction of reading comprehension ability using gray matter volume. Cerebral Cortex, 28(5), 1656–1672. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx061.
Denson, T. F., DeWall, C. N., & Finkel, E. J. (2012). Self-control and aggression. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(1), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411429451.
Enright, R. D., & Fitzgibbons, R. P. (2015). Forgiveness therapy: An empirical guide for resolving anger and restoring hope. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14526-000.
Evans, T. M., Kochalka, J., Ngoon, T. J., Wu, S. S., Qin, S., Battista, C., & Menon, V. (2015). Brain structural integrity and intrinsic functional connectivity forecast 6 year longitudinal growth in children’s numerical abilities. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(33), 11743–11750. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0216-15.2015.
Exline, J. J., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Hill, P., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Forgiveness and justice: A research agenda for social and personality psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7(4), 337–348. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0704_06.
Fatfouta, R., Meshi, D., Merkl, A., & Heekeren, H. R. (2018). Accepting unfairness by a significant other is associated with reduced connectivity between medial prefrontal and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Social Neuroscience, 13(1), 61–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2016.1252795.
Fehr, R., & Gelfand, M. J. (2012). The forgiving organization: A multilevel model of forgiveness at work. Academy of Management Review, 37(4), 664–688. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0497.
Feng, C., Feng, X., Wang, L., Wang, L., Gu, R., Ni, A., & Luo, Y. J. (2019). The neural signatures of egocentric bias in normative decision-making. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 13(3), 685–698. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-018-9893-1.
Finkel, E. J., Rusbult, C. E., Kumashiro, M., & Hannon, P. A. (2002). Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: Does commitment promote forgiveness? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 956. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.956.
Friston, K. J., Williams, S., Howard, R., Frackowiak, R. S., & Turner, R. (1996). Movement-related effects in fMRI time‐series. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 35(3), 346–355. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.1910350312.
Gabay, A. S., Radua, J., Kempton, M. J., & Mehta, M. A. (2014). The Ultimatum Game and the brain: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 549–558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.014.
Haesevoets, T., De Cremer, D., Van Hiel, A., & Van Overwalle, F. (2018). Understanding the positive effect of financial compensation on trust after norm violations: Evidence from fMRI in favor of forgiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(5), 578. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000271.
Hu, J., Blue, P. R., Yu, H., Gong, X., Xiang, Y., Jiang, C., & Zhou, X. (2016). Social status modulates the neural response to unfairness. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv086.
Igelström, K. M., & Graziano, M. S. (2017). The inferior parietal lobule and temporoparietal junction: A network perspective. Neuropsychologia, 105, 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.001.
Kalbe, E., Schlegel, M., Sack, A. T., Nowak, D. A., Dafotakis, M., Bangard, C., & Kessler, J. (2010). Dissociating cognitive from affective theory of mind: A TMS study. Cortex, 46(6), 769–780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Cortex.2009.07.010.
Koster-Hale, J., & Saxe, R. (2013). Theory of mind: A neural prediction problem. Neuron, 79(5), 836–848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.08.020.
Kurniati, N. M. T., Worthington, E. L., Poerwandari, K., Ginanjar, E., A. S., & Dwiwardani, C. (2017). Forgiveness in javanese collective culture: The relationship between rumination, harmonious value, decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 20(2), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12173.
Lawler-Row, K. A., Karremans, J. C., Scott, C., Edlis-Matityahou, M., & Edwards, L. (2008). Forgiveness, physiological reactivity and health: The role of anger. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 68(1), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.01.001.
Lee, Y. R., & Enright, R. D. (2019). A meta-analysis of the association between forgiveness of others and physical health. Psychology & Health, 34(5), 626–643. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2018.1554185.
Li, H., & Lu, J. (2017). The neural association between tendency to forgive and spontaneous brain activity in healthy young adults. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, 561. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00561.
Lichtenfeld, S., Buechner, V. L., Maier, M. A., & Fernández-Capo, M. (2015). Forgive and forget: Differences between decisional and emotional forgiveness. PloS One, 10(5), e0125561. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125561.
Lichtenfeld, S., Maier, M. A., Buechner, V. L., & Fernández Capo, M. (2019). The influence of decisional and emotional forgiveness on attributions. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1425. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01425.
Liu, Y., Wang, K., Chunshui, Y. U., He, Y., Zhou, Y., Liang, M., & Jiang, T. (2008). Regional homogeneity, functional connectivity and imaging markers of Alzheimer’s disease: A review of resting-state fMRI studies. Neuropsychologia, 46(6), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.01.027.
Maier, M. J., Rosenbaum, D., Haeussinger, F. B., Brüne, M., Enzi, B., Plewnia, C., & Ehlis, A. C. (2018). Forgiveness and cognitive control–provoking revenge via theta-burst-stimulation of the DLPFC. Neuroimage, 183, 769–775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.08.065.
Matthew, M., Botvinick; Jonathan, D., Cohen; Cameron, S., & Carter (2004). Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: An update., 8(12), 0–546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.10.003.
McCullough, M. E. (2000). Forgiveness as human strength: Theory, measurement, and links to well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2000.19.1.43.
McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Brown, S. W., & Hight, T. L. (1998). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1586–1603. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1586.
McRae, K., Hughes, B., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). The neural bases of distraction and reappraisal. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(2), 248–262. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21243.
Moor, B. G., Güroğlu, B., de Macks, Z. A. O., Rombouts, S. A., Van der Molen, M. W., & Crone, E. A. (2012). Social exclusion and punishment of excluders: Neural correlates and developmental trajectories. Neuroimage, 59(1), 708–717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.028.
Naor, N., Rohr, C., Schaare, L. H., Limbachia, C., Shamay-Tsoory, S., & Okon-Singer, H. (2020). The neural networks underlying reappraisal of empathy for pain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 15(7), 733–744. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaa094.
Numssen, O., Bzdok, D., & Hartwigsen, G. (2021). Functional specialization within the inferior parietal lobes across cognitive domains. Elife, 10, e63591. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63591.
Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2005). The cognitive control of emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(5), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.010.
Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2014). The neural bases of emotion and emotion regulation: A valuation perspective. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 23–42). The Guilford Press.
Ohtsubo, Y., Matsunaga, M., Tanaka, H., Suzuki, K., Kobayashi, F., Shibata, E., & Ohira, H. (2018). Costly apologies communicate conciliatory intention: An fMRI study on forgiveness in response to costly apologies. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(2), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.01.004.
Pedregosa, F., Varoquaux, G., Gramfort, A., Michel, V., Thirion, B., Grisel, O., & Duchesnay, É. (2011). Scikit-learn: Machine learning in Python. The Journal of Machine Learning Research, 12, 2825–2830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.12.008.
Pronk, T. M., Karremans, J. C., Overbeek, G., Vermulst, A. A., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2010). What it takes to forgive: When and why executive functioning facilitates forgiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(1), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017875.
Rao, X., Wang, W., Luo, S., Qiu, J., & Li, H. (2022). Brain structures associated with individual differences in decisional and emotional forgiveness. Neuropsychologia, 170, 108223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108223.
Ricciardi, E., Rota, G., Sani, L., Gentili, C., Gaglianese, A., Guazzelli, M., & Pietrini, P. (2013). How the brain heals emotional wounds: The functional neuroanatomy of forgiveness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 839. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00839.
Ruby, P., & Decety, J. (2001). Effect of subjective perspective taking during simulation of action: A PET investigation of agency. Nature Neuroscience, 4(5), 546–550. https://doi.org/10.1038/87510.
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Aharon-Peretz, J., & Perry, D. (2009). Two systems for empathy: A double dissociation between emotional and cognitive empathy in inferior frontal gyrus versus ventromedial prefrontal lesions. Brain, 132(3), 617–627. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn279.
Strang, S., Utikal, V., Fischbacher, U., Weber, B., & Falk, A. (2014). Neural correlates of receiving an apology and active forgiveness: An fMRI study. PloS One, 9(2), e87654. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087654.
Tholen, M. G., Trautwein, F. M., Böckler, A., Singer, T., & Kanske, P. (2020). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) item analysis of empathy and theory of mind. Human Brain Mapping, 41(10), 2611–2628. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24966.
Wade, N. G., Hoyt, W. T., Kidwell, J. E., & Worthington, E. L. Jr. (2014). Efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to promote forgiveness: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(1), 154. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035268.
Wang, W., Liu, S., Worthington, E. L. Jr., & Li, H. (2022). The validation of the Decisional and Emotional Forgiveness Scale among a Chinese sample: The mediating role of forgiveness between stress perception and resilience. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 16267. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192316267.
Wenzel, M., Turner, J. K., & Okimoto, T. G. (2010). Is forgiveness an outcome or initiator of sociocognitive processes? Rumination, empathy, and cognitive appraisals following a transgression. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(4), 369–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610376598.
Wilkowski, B. M., Robinson, M. D., & Troop-Gordon, W. (2010). How does cognitive control reduce anger and aggression? The role of conflict monitoring and forgiveness processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(5), 830. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018962.
Will, G. J., Crone, E. A., & Güroğlu, B. (2015). Acting on social exclusion: Neural correlates of punishment and forgiveness of excluders. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(2), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu045.
Worthington, E. L. Jr., & Scherer, M. (2004). Forgiveness is an emotion-focused coping strategy that can reduce health risks and promote health resilience: Theory, review, and hypotheses. Psychology & Health, 19(3), 385–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/0887044042000196674.
Worthington, E. L. Jr., Witvliet, C. V. O., Pietrini, P., & Miller, A. J. (2007). Forgiveness, health, and well-being: A review of evidence for emotional versus decisional forgiveness, dispositional forgivingness, and reduced unforgiveness. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30(4), 291–302 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-007-9105-8.
Yan, C. G., Cheung, B., Kelly, C., Colcombe, S., Craddock, R. C., Di Martino, A., & Milham, M. P. (2013). A comprehensive assessment of regional variation in the impact of head micromovements on functional connectomics. Neuroimage, 76, 183–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.03.004.
Yan, C. G., Wang, X. D., Zuo, X. N., & Zang, Y. F. (2016). DPABI: Data processing & analysis for (resting-state) brain imaging. Neuroinformatics, 14, 339–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12021-016-9299-4.
Funding
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700995) and the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (17YJC190011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
H.L. designed the study; J.Q.and H.L. contributed to data sources and study selection; H.L., W.W. and J.L. draft the original manuscript; J.L., Y.W. and H.L. revised the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Consent to participate
All subjects signed a written informed consent form after a full written and verbal explanation of the study.
Consent to publish
All authors contributed to and have approved the submission and publish of final manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Li, H., Wang, W., Li, J. et al. Spontaneous brain activity associated with individual differences in decisional and emotional forgiveness. Brain Imaging and Behavior (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00856-z
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00856-z