Running head: THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE RECALL AND IMAGERY OF 1 AN OFFENSE The Effects of Culture and Forgiveness in the Recall and Imagery of an Offense

The current literature states that being forgiving does not lead to the risky health consequences that may be produced when one is unforgiving (Witvliet, Ludwig, & VanderLann., 2001). Despite cultural differences, levels of forgiveness seem to be similar across cultures. Emotion plays an important role during an offense and forgiveness. Research indicates that those from collectivistic cultures experience more physiological arousal during emotion expression. On the contrary, individuals from individualistic cultures do not experience such physiological arousal during emotion expression (Butler, Lee, & Gross, 2009). In this study, 40 participants from different cultural backgrounds were interviewed about an offense they experienced. The interview included a recall condition and a thinking condition. Heart rate, skin conductance, skin temperature and EMG were continuously recorded during the interview. This study investigated whether participants from collectivistic cultures would have increased physiological arousal during the recall of the offense while those from individualistic cultures would have increased physiological arousal while imagining the offense. It was found that those from collectivistic cultures experienced a significantly lesser increase in EMG during the thinking condition, compared to those from individualistic cultures. This indicates that those from collectivistic cultures frowned less than those from individualistic cultures while imagining the offense. Some physiological means were in the predicted direction. Confounding variables and the order of the conditions seemed to affect the results in the current study. This study demonstrates how our culture influences how we respond when discussing or thinking about an offense we have experienced. THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE RECALL AND IMAGERY OF AN OFFENSE 3 Introduction During the last decade, forgiveness has received much attention in the psychology field (McCullough, Rachal, Sandage, Worthington, Brown, & Hight, 1998 as cited in Worthington & Scherer, 2004). By studying forgiveness, one can study the strong connection between the body and mind. One can also study how cultures differentiate in forgiveness. Thus, the topic of forgiveness allows researchers to study various areas. The current study adds to the literature by investigating how culture influences forgiveness, emotion expression, and physiological responses. Forgiveness and Culture Forgiveness is important if one wants to continue a relationship with others. However, relationships with others can develop and be approached differently in different contexts, for example, cultures. There are two broad types of cultures, individualistic and collectivistic. In individualistic cultures, there is an emphasis on independence from groups, a “lack of attention to the views of others, relatively little concern for family and relatives, and tendencies toward competition” (Triandis, McCusker, & Hui,, 1990 as cited in Shkodriani & Gibbons, 1995, p. 766). In contrast, collectivistic cultures view the self as part of a group and value interdependence. Forgiveness is carried out by a victim in both individualist and collectivist cultures, but, forgiveness is given for different reasons. In collectivistic cultures, forgiveness might be expected, such as a “social duty” (Paz, Neto, & Mullet, 2008, p. 150), due to the emphasis on relationships. In individualistic cultures, forgiveness is granted once the victim makes an independent, conscious decision to forgive the other. It is evident that granting forgiveness is greatly influenced by one’s culture. Comparison of forgiveness among cultures. THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE RECALL AND IMAGERY OF AN OFFENSE 4 Despite the differences among individualistic and collectivistic cultures, levels of forgiveness have been found to be similar between collectivist and individualist cultures; however, different factors are impacted by cultural differences. In a study done by Paz, Neto and Mullet (2008), 1,576 Chinese and French participants completed 18 items from the Forgiveness Questionnaire. Statistical tests showed that Chinese had higher levels of Lasting Resentment and Sensitivity to Circumstances. These findings were due to the Chinese collectivist culture. This study indicates that those from a collectivist culture are affected by different factors during an offense, such as resentment, which can be less important for those from individualistic cultures. Another important finding was the similar level of dispositional forgiveness between the Chinese and French. However, acquiescence effects were present in this finding. Chinese participants were more forgiving than the French when the items on the questionnaire were positive, but were more unforgiving when the items were negative, possibly leading the findings to cancel each other. Concluding that both cultures had similar levels of dispositional forgiveness can be incorrect due to the acquiescence effects; however, other studies have also found similar levels of forgiveness among cultures. Suchday, Friedberg and Almeida (2006) also found that levels of forgiveness were similar between two cultures and countries, India and the United States. Most participants were university students; 188 from India and 71 from the US. All participants completed six questions related to their tendency to forgive and their tendency to ruminate. Stress and physical symptoms were also measured with a questionnaire. The study found a negative correlation between forgiveness and rumination, as well as perceived stress. This finding is supported by research that has shown that unforgiveness is stressful, indicating that those who are stressed or ruminate often are exposed to health risks (Worthington, & Scherer, 2004). Another interesting THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE RECALL AND IMAGERY OF AN OFFENSE 5 finding was that forgiveness did not predict or correlate with physical symptoms. A reason for this finding could be that participants were too young to report any significant health problems. Perhaps using an older sample could produce a correlation between forgiveness and physical health. Suchday and associates (2006) found that there was no difference between the Indian and US sample in forgiveness, rumination and perceived stress, indicating that cultural differences do not affect forgiveness and health. One questions whether acquiescence effects arose in these studies (Paz et al., 2008; Suchday et al., 2006) of culture and forgiveness because participants from collectivistic cultures might have felt more compelled to respond in a way that did not go against their cultural beliefs and norms, thus, not giving true responses. There could also be unknown variables, causing these drastic differences between studies, for example, age. Participants who are from an older cohort may have been more impacted by their culture’s norms and beliefs because of a minimal North American influence. Today, many cultures are exposed to a higher American cultural influence. Through the current literature, it is clear that culture does not impact how forgiving one may be. However, culture does seem to impact the reasons why people forgive. Because the current study is investigating cross-cultural differences, levels of forgiveness would not indicate cultural differences since forgiveness levels are similar across various cultures. Thus, one must consider other manners in which forgiveness is affected by cross-cultural differences. Emotion Suppression and Culture An important aspect of forgiveness that should receive attention consists of the emotions involved. Various strong emotions are experienced during an offense or when granting forgiveness. However, our culture influences our expression of those emotions. Culture plays THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE RECALL AND IMAGERY OF AN OFFENSE 6 an important role in creating beliefs about “how emotions should be experienced and expressed” (Ekman & Friesen, 1969 as cited in Roberts, Levenson, Gross, 2008, p. 82) during our social interactions. Emotional suppression is the “inhibition of emotion-expressive behavior during an emotion episode” (Roberts et al., 2008, p. 82). Emotional suppression has distinct cultural differences. Generally, individualistic cultures seek self-expression; thus, expressivity of emotion is common when interacting with others. Collectivistic cultures believe that expression of emotions can harm relationships; therefore, it is important to continuously regulate one’s emotions (Butler, Lee, & Gross, 2009). Suppression has been found to be positively correlated with certain cultural values. Some cultures value Power Distance, which consists of giving more power to individuals with higher status, and “encourage self-regulation” (Matsumoto, Nakagawa, & Yoo, 2008, p. 926) when relating to someone of higher status. Therefore, cultures that highly value Power Distance use more suppression (Matsumoto et al., 2008). Culture’s effects on emotion suppression. Butler, Lee, and Gross (2007) conducted a two-part study to test how suppression and culture impacted one’s conversations with others. The first part consisted of questionnaires. The Asian Values Scale (Kim, Atkinson, & Yang, 1999 as cited in Butler et al., 2007) and the European American Values Scale (Wolfe, Yang, Wong, & Atkinson, 2001 as cited in Butler et al., 2007) were used to test which cultural values the 166 female participants agreed with the most. However, the participant’s ethnic background was noted as well. The Asian Values Scale relates to collectivistic cultural values and the European American Values Scale relates to individualistic cultural values. Based on questionnaires, investigators found that participants with European American values used less suppression in daily life than those with Asian values. THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND FORGIVENESS IN THE REC