New Science of Forgiveness An Interview with Prof. Everett Worthington, Jr

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is decisional forgiveness, which is making a behavioral intention statement—that is, saying to myself, “This is how I intend to act next time I see the person”—not to get revenge but instead to treat the person as a valued and valuable person. But we can make a sincere decision to forgive and stick by it for the rest of our lives and still feel resentful and angry when we think about how someone offended or hurt us. So, there must be a second type of forgiveness, which I call emotional forgiveness. This is replacing negative unforgiving emotions with positive other-oriented emotions, like empathy, sympathy, compassion or love for the person