Victims sometimes forgive the perpetrators of past wrongdoings, either to repair a relationship or simply to move on. After forgiving, however, victims typically still remember what happened. Yet, the memory of the wrongdoing does not elicit the same affective and reactive attitudes it once did. How does forgiveness interact with memory to bring about this emotional change?
In this talk, Felipe De Brigard, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and associate of the Duke Initiative for Science Society at Duke University, will offer conceptual and empirical reasons to think of forgiveness as mollifying the affective contents of retrieved memories of past wrongdoings via a process of emotional reappraisal. He will also show how this research, which is being conducted with victims of political violence in Colombia, can have implications for peace and reconciliation strategies in post-conflict societies. Laura Miller-Graff, professor of psychology and peace studies, will moderate this discussion.
Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.