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Forgiveness of Others, Race/Ethnicity, and Health: A Nascent Area of Inquiry

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Forgiveness and Health

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in research linking forgiveness to health and well-being. In this chapter we highlight race as one overlooked area of research in the forgiveness-health literature. To understand the complex interplay among race, forgiveness and health, as well as the broader social context we consider two general propositions: (a) blacks are more forgiving of others than their white counterparts; and (b) forgiveness has a more beneficial impact on health for blacks than whites. Overall, we conclude: (a) there are strong theoretical reasons to suspect the relationship between forgiveness and health varies by race; (b) there are pronounced black-white differences in levels of interpersonal forgiveness; (c) the role of race in the forgiveness-health connection as well as the role of the broader social context have been woefully understudied and present a promising direction for future research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From here forward we use the word “race” instead of the unwieldy term “race/ethnicity.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Jersey Family Health Consortium, North Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Cheryl A. Smith Ph.D.

  2. Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Michael J. McFarland Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Cheryl A. Smith Ph.D.
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  2. Michael J. McFarland Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Cheryl A. Smith Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, USA

    Loren Toussaint

  2. Dept of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Everett Worthington

  3. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    David R. Williams

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Smith, C.A., McFarland, M.J. (2015). Forgiveness of Others, Race/Ethnicity, and Health: A Nascent Area of Inquiry. In: Toussaint, L., Worthington, E., Williams, D. (eds) Forgiveness and Health. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9993-5_13

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