Graphic: Brain regions involved with memory formation.

“A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General provides insight into how forgiveness affects memory. The researchers found that forgiving someone who has wronged you does not blur or alter the details of the event in memory. Instead, it changes how you feel about it. People who have forgiven a past offense still remember what happened with the same clarity, but their emotional response when recalling the event is less intense and less negative.”

Key insights for understanding the science of forgiveness, and applying it in forgiveness education for a Catholic parish or faith community:

• Researchers wanted to know whether forgiveness causes the forgiver to recall the offense or hurt in less vivid detail with “episodic fading,” or allows the forgiver to emotionally reframe the offense or hurt with “emotional fading.”
• Across studies, participants who had forgiven the person who wronged them consistently reported less emotional distress when remembering the event.
• There was no significant difference between forgiven and unforgiven memories in terms of their clarity or detail, whether or not the perpetrator had been forgiven.
• The reduced emotional intensity of forgiven memories was not because the wrongdoing seemed less serious in retrospect. Instead, the emotional transformation appeared to occur during the act of remembering itself—people still thought the wrongdoing was wrong, but they no longer felt as angry or hurt when recalling it.

“This study strengthens the idea that forgiveness does not involve forgetting or diminishing the facts of a hurtful event. Instead, it appears to be a psychological process that transforms our emotional reaction to those memories. When people say they ‘forgive but don’t forget,’ this research suggests they are being quite literal: the memory remains, but the emotional pain fades.”

Link to full article: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-shed-light-on-how-forgiveness-does-and-doesnt-reshape-memories/

This text is an original work of its author Tom Delaney and was entirely composed without the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

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If your parish or faith community is seeking a deeper experience of healing, mercy, and spiritual renewal, Live and Forgive is here to help. To begin the conversation, email Live and Forgive presenter and facilitator Tom Delaney at tom@liveandforgive.com—Tom will be glad to connect with you in a spirit of welcome, respect, and shared faith.