Is Forgiveness a Universal Value? Exploring the Possibility of a Universal Concept of Forgiveness

It often is claimed that forgiveness is valued across cultures. In order to test this assumption this research attempted to identify whether or not forgiveness was actually a concept that was known across cultures and whether or not it is held, across those cultures, to be a value of importance. To address these aims, we used the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) to search 230 cultures. Keywords used include: forgiveness, forgiveness and reconciliation, and ceremony. In addition, we conducted an in-depth study of three religions in which forgiveness is a key component to its practice: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The research on these universal religions further substantiates the research findings and provides an understanding of religions as a systemized method of passing along teachings of virtues such as forgiveness from generation to generation. This study concluded that forgiveness is a value found across cultures, that there are differences between the value placed upon forgiveness depending upon whether or not the offense was committed by a member of the same social group or an outsider, and that the degree of the emphasis placed on it will depend on environmental factors, as well as the type of offense, the effect of the offense, and the community costs.