The Heart of Forgiving: An
Investigation of Cardiac and Emotional Responses to Offenses
Nathaniel DeYoung
Department
of Psychology
We developed a paradigm that uses heart rate variability
(HRV; an indicator of vagal tone) as both an
individual differences variable and as a dependent variable. As an independent
variable, we assess whether baseline HRV scores are associated with differences
on trait measures of grudge-holding, suppression, and genuine forgiveness. As dependent variables, we assess HRV, facial
EMG, and emotion ratings as participants respond variously to a past real-life
offender. The three responses include (1) Ruminating about the offense and
its consequences, (2) Suppressing/concealing one’s feelings about the offense, and (3) Reappraising the offense to focus on the
humanity of one’s offender and to cultivate compassion. In this paradigm, we collect two-minutes of
continuous physiology for each of the baseline, imagery, and relaxation
recovery periods. Offense rumination
trials precede each of the suppression and reappraisal trials; trial order is
counterbalanced across participants.