The propensity to forgive a severe offense is studied in a sample of 48 people from three religious communities in Lebanon: Catholics, Maronites, and Orthodox. The effects of a number of circumstances: intent to harm, cancellation of consequences, religious and social proximity to the offender and apologies from the offender, on the propensity to forgive, and the variation of these effects as a function of age, gender, and educational level, were considered. The method was an application of Norman Anderson's functional theory of cognition. Twenty-four stories were constructed by varying systematically the levels of each of the four factors quoted above. Participants were asked to rate in each case their propensity to forgive on a forgiveness scale. The more important results concern: (a) the overall level of propensity to forgive, which was higher than expected, (b) the impact of the religious proximity factor, which was very slight, and (c) the effect of the apologies factor, which was extremely important.

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The present study investigates the cross-cultural differences in conceptualizations of forgiveness, using a modified version of the Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Scale. In the Congolese (collectivistic) culture, forgiveness was expected to be mainly conceived as an "interpersonal" construct, and in the French (individualistic) culture as an "intrapersonal" process. The findings supported these views. The Congolese more than the French conceived forgiveness as aimed at reconciling with the offender and extensible to people outside the offended-offender dyad.

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