kariterzino - FORGIVENESS

Kari Terzino, Susan Cross, and their collaborator Frank Fincham are currently conducting a study of "hollow forgiveness," which is thought to occur when victims express forgiveness to transgressors but do not feel forgiveness privately. This theoretical construct has not been substantiated empirically, so we are conducting a series of studies to demonstrate its existence, and to examine the processes involved in hollow forgiveness.
Kari Terzino's masters thesis is examining forgiveness and culture from a prototype perspective. Even though forgiveness research has experienced a great surge in popularity, there has been very little cross-cultural forgiveness research. We aim to bridge this gap, and have undertaken several studies that will allow us to examine how individuals from East Asian cultures think about and define forgiveness. Kari was recently awarded an NSF fellowship to study in Japan. While in Japan, she collected data for the first in this series of studies.