A psychology study suggests that divine forgiveness can shape how people respond after they hurt someone. The research, led by Justin M. Ludwig at the University of Pittsburgh with Jonah Koetke and Karina Schumann, was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Across two studies, people who felt forgiven by God tended to feel more forgiven by themselves and that shift often lined up with a lower willingness to apologize.
The full paper is listed on PubMed. For readers, the question is practical. If you feel at peace spiritually after a mistake, does that peace help you repair the relationship, or does it sometimes reduce the push to make things right face-to-face?
Why Researchers Looked at Divine Forgiveness and Apologizing
Apologies play a big role in everyday life. They can repair trust, lower tension and help two people stay connected after a conflict. Many psychology studies focus on the person who was harmed. This study turned the lens toward the person who caused the harm.
Researchers have also studied how faith connects with well-being. Feeling forgiven by a higher power often relates to comfort and hope. It can also support conflict resolution by reducing shame. At the same time, guilt and discomfort sometimes motivate people to take action and make amends.
So the team asked a direct question. When someone feels forgiven by God for an interpersonal wrongdoing, does that feeling change apology behavior toward the person who was hurt? The researchers also wanted to map the “why.” They tested whether forgiveness from God might work through two emotional routes that pull in different directions.
One route involves self-forgiveness. When people forgive themselves, they may feel settled. That settled feeling may reduce the inner pressure to repair the social damage. Another route involves emotions like gratitude and humility, which can make people more open, more caring and more willing to take responsibility.
How the Studies Tested Real-World Wrongdoing Memories
The researchers used two studies and both started the same way. Participants were asked to remember a time they had hurt, upset, or offended someone. The situation also had to feel unresolved. That mattered because an apology is more meaningful when the relationship still has an open wound.
In Study 1, 435 participants from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds completed questionnaires about that remembered event. They rated how much they felt forgiven by God for the specific offense. They also rated their self-forgiveness for it. Next, they reported how likely they were to apologize.
Then came a behavioral task that went beyond checkboxes. Participants wrote an email to the person they harmed. They were told the email might be sent at the end of the study. The researchers did not actually send emails. Independent reviewers later read the messages and judged whether an apology was present, how much remorse it showed and how sincere or high-quality the apology seemed.
Study 2 included 531 participants and added an experimental element. People still recalled a personal wrongdoing. Before some of the surveys, participants were randomly assigned to imagine one of three situations. One group pictured God forgiving them. Another pictured God not forgiving them. A control group received no special prompt about divine forgiveness. After that, participants reported self-forgiveness and also rated feelings like gratitude and humility. They again wrote an email and outside judges rated it.
Feeling Forgiven by God Was Linked With More Self-Forgiveness
Across both studies, a clear pattern showed up. People who felt more forgiven by God also tended to feel more forgiven by themselves for the same wrongdoing. This link held even when the researchers considered other factors, like how serious the offense felt or how close the relationship was.
One reason this matters is that self-forgiveness can function like emotional closure. Many people want to feel “settled” after a mistake. A sense of spiritual forgiveness may help provide that settled feeling. The study suggests that this emotional shift can happen even when the social situation stays unresolved.
Researchers also found something that surprised the lead author. The results looked similar across Christian, Jewish and Muslim participants. That detail hints that the psychological experience of feeling forgiven by God may have shared features across these monotheistic faiths, at least in the contexts sampled.
Callout:
The study’s core idea is simple: spiritual relief can change what people feel they still “need to do” after a wrongdoing.
It also helps explain why two people can react so differently after similar mistakes. One person may feel forgiven in a way that supports calm reflection and repair. Another may feel forgiven in a way that feels finished, even while the relationship remains strained.
Self-Forgiveness Was Tied to Lower Willingness to Apologize
Study 1 found that higher self-forgiveness lined up with less willingness to apologize. People who felt more self-forgiven also wrote emails that were rated as showing less remorse. Their messages were also rated as lower in apology quality and sincerity.
In Study 2, the same general pattern appeared. When participants were guided to imagine being forgiven by God, that tended to raise self-forgiveness. Higher self-forgiveness then related to lower apologizing, including weaker email apologies as judged by independent readers.
This fits a basic idea in social psychology. People often act when they feel a gap between “what happened” and “what should happen next.” An apology can shrink that gap. Self-forgiveness can also shrink it. When self-forgiveness arrives early, it may reduce the feeling that an apology is still required.
Another way to think about it involves internal closure. If someone feels inwardly resolved, they may approach the harmed person with less urgency. That can look like avoidance, delay, or a softer apology. Over time, this pattern may keep conflicts stuck, especially when the harmed person still wants acknowledgment.
Gratitude and Humility Were Tied to Stronger Apologies
The results did not point in a single direction. Study 2 found another path that helped apologizing. When participants imagined being forgiven by God, they often reported higher gratitude.
Gratitude can shift attention outward. It can make people feel cared for. It can also raise the desire to live up to values like kindness and responsibility. In the study, gratitude was linked to higher humility.
Humility matters because apologies require a certain posture. A person has to accept that they caused harm. They have to face discomfort. They also have to center the other person’s experience. In this research, higher humility was associated with slightly higher willingness to apologize.
Callout:
Divine forgiveness connected to apologizing through gratitude and humility, even while self-forgiveness pushed in the opposite direction.
This “two-pathway” picture helps explain why faith can sometimes lead to warmer repair and sometimes to less direct repair. The emotional mix seems important. Feeling forgiven may lift gratitude and humility for some people. For others, it may land mainly as personal relief.
What This Could Mean for Repairing Relationships After Harm
Many people want peace after a mistake. A spiritual sense of forgiveness may provide that peace. The study suggests that peace can come with a social trade-off in some situations, especially when self-forgiveness becomes the main outcome.
At the same time, the gratitude and humility route points to something hopeful. Feeling forgiven by God may also support sincere apologies when it increases appreciation and modesty. A person who feels grateful may become more willing to face the other person and offer a fuller repair attempt.
For everyday life, the study highlights a simple relationship dynamic. The harmed person often wants recognition, remorse and change. The person who caused harm may focus on feeling “good again” inside. Those two goals can clash if the inner goal gets met first.
Small choices could shape how this plays out. Some people may pause and ask, “Have I also repaired the relationship?” That question does not require a specific religion. It can work as a values check for anyone who wants to live with integrity.
Readers may also notice how this shows up in groups. Faith communities sometimes talk about forgiveness in ways that focus on personal relief. Communities can also promote responsibility and reparative action. The study suggests that messages that encourage humility and gratitude may support stronger reconciliation behaviors.
Limits to Keep in Mind
Every study has boundaries and this one has several. Study 1 was correlational, so it could not show cause and effect. It showed links between feelings, not a guaranteed chain where one factor creates the next.
Both studies relied on memories of past events. People can misremember details. People can also choose examples that present them in a certain light. Even with those issues, recalling a real wrongdoing can capture emotional reality in a way that a fully fictional scenario may miss.
Study 2 used an experimental prompt, yet it still asked people to imagine a divine response. Real spiritual experiences can be more intense and more complex. The lab prompt may not match how people feel in daily life, especially during major betrayals or long-running conflicts.
The participant pool also matters. The study included Christian, Jewish and Muslim participants. It focused on monotheistic traditions in a Western research context. Results may differ in other cultures and in other religious or spiritual traditions. People who are nonreligious may also interpret “divine forgiveness” very differently, or they may not relate to it at all.
Questions the Researchers Want to Study Next
The authors highlighted several directions for future research. One question involves behavior over time. Do these emotional pathways shape whether someone is more likely to repeat a harmful act? Self-forgiveness can reduce shame and reduced shame may support growth. Patterns likely depend on how self-forgiveness develops and what it includes.
Another direction involves broadening faith traditions. The similarities across Christian, Jewish and Muslim participants were striking in this study. Researchers may test whether similar patterns appear in other religious groups. That includes traditions with different views of God, forgiveness and moral repair.
The study also opens a door to “collective” forms of divine forgiveness. The lead author raised interest in measuring collective divine forgiveness and exploring how it shapes group-based apologies. That could matter for how communities respond to historic harms, public wrongdoing and intergroup conflict.
Finally, future work could examine what helps people hold two truths at once: personal spiritual relief and social responsibility. This study suggests that religious participants may be more likely to apologize when feelings of gratitude and humility stay active. Research could test interventions that support these emotions without pushing people into excessive shame.