"Insatiable" Or "enough Is Enough.

The purpose of the study was to discuss the consequences of forgiveness. From the aspect of the offenders, there are several inconsistencies among previous studies. Some studies showed that forgiveness would deter repeat offenses, while other studies revealed that forgiveness would encourage them. The present study, which contains 4 sub-study, is designed to clarify the contradiction.In study 1, a qualitative research method was used to find the influence factors of consequences of forgiveness. The results obtained by participant selection, interview research, and the analysis of interview materials showed that there were four influence factors:relationship of them, offenders’intention of injurious behavior, the possibility of revenge, and offenders’personality.Study 2 contains five sub-studies. In study a, b, c and d, the influencing factors of relationship of them, offenders’intention of injurious behavior, the possibility of revenge and offenders’personality were used in a prisoners dilemma game to discuss the relationship between the victims’forgiveness and the offenders’behavior follow the forgiveness. In study e, the participants were asked to recall a time when they had hurt or offended another person, and then they described their response after receiving (or failing to receive) forgiveness. In these studies, all the main effects of forgiveness were significant, which meaned that participants playing a form of the prisoner’s dilemma game were more likely to repeat their transgressions against unforgiving victims than forgiving victims. Apart from that, the interactions of forgiveness and relationship of them, offenders’intention, the possibility of revenge and some personalities were also significant, that meaned when victims had no chance to retaliate, or the victims were strangers, or the victims were injured by the participants intentionally, or the offenders had some certain personalities, the participants were more likely to stop their negative act when they were forgiven. Finally, study e showed a similar result in the real situation.One question that remained after Study 1 and 2 was whether participants were more influenced by the forgiving or unforgiving messages. Did participants reward forgiveness or punish unforgiveness? Study 3 was used To clarify whether participants were responding positively toward forgiveness, this study replicated Study 2 with one change. The replication replaced the angry unforgiving message with the more neutral message. The results showed, no matter the information was nonforgiveness or neutral message, the participants would encourage repeat offenses, only when the participants receive a forgiveness message, thay would deter repeat offenses. That meand the motivation of the offenders was "reward forgiveness", not "punish unforgiveness".In study 4, the machine processed of consequences of forgiveness was discussed. By a questionnaire survey, guilt was found a mediator between forgiveness and the behavior follow forgiveness. In this relationship, guilt was firstly influenced by forgiveness, and it would then influence the offenders’behavior follow forgiveness. Apart from that, this mediation effect was also moderated by a moderator----empathy. In a word, the relationship among forgiveness, offenders’behavior follow forgiveness, guilt and empathy was a moderated mediation modelIn conclusion, this study examines how people respond when their offenses are forgiven. Our research indicates that expressions of forgiveness generally serve to deter rather than invite repeat offenses, though the relationship between the victims’ forgiveness and the offenders’ behavior follow the forgiveness is influenced by some factors such as the relationship of them, offenders’intention of injurious behavior and the possibility of revenge. This study clarify the contradiction in existing studies preliminarily, and is a reference to interpersonal interaction. From the aspect of methodology, this study used experimental method to study forgiveness for the first time in China, which provided some ideas for future studies.