The Secret of Forgiveness: Only One Type Reduces Depression
By Jeremy Dean, PsyBlog, September 27, 2015
This post has been viewed 2,521 times.
People in general become more forgiving as they get older — but one type of forgiveness reduces depression.
Women who forgive others are less likely to feel depressed, a new study finds.
This was unaffected by whether they felt others had forgiven them.
For men, though, forgiving others and feeling unforgiven was linked to higher levels of depression.
Self-forgiveness, meanwhile, had little impact on depression for either men or women.
Dr Christine Proulx, one of the study’s authors, said:
“It doesn’t feel good when we perceive that others haven’t forgiven us for something.
When we think about forgiveness and characteristics of people who are forgiving — altruistic, compassionate, empathetic — these people forgive others and seem to compensate for the fact that others aren’t forgiving them.
