People are predisposed to forgive

When assessing the moral character of others, people cling to good impressions but readily adjust their opinions about those who have behaved badly, according to new research. This flexibility in judging transgressors might help explain both how humans forgive - and why they sometimes stay in bad relationships. The research, conducted by psychologists at Yale, the University of Oxford, University College London, and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour . 'The ability to accurately form impressions of others' character is crucial for the development and maintenance of healthy relationships,' said Jenifer Siegel, Oxford doctoral student and lead author of the paper. 'We have developed new tools for measuring impression formation, which could help improve our understanding of relational dysfunction.' 'The brain forms social impressions in a way that can enable forgiveness,' said Yale psychologist Molly Crockett, senior author of the paper. 'Because people sometimes behave badly by accident, we need to be able to update bad impressions that turn out to be mistaken. Otherwise, we might end relationships prematurely and miss out on the many benefits of social connection.' Across a series of experiments, more than 1500 subjects observed the choices of two strangers who faced a moral dilemma: whether to inflict painful electric shocks on another person in exchange for money.