Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the role of narcissism on dispositional forgiveness and state forgiveness. In Study 1, two hundred participants completed measures of narcissistic personality, self-esteem, and dispositional forgiveness. Path analysis reveals that narcissism predicts dispositional forgiveness such that participants scoring higher on narcissism are more likely to forgive themselves and less likely to forgive others and situations (ps < .01). Self-esteem mediates the relationship between narcissism and forgiving of oneself (p < .01). In Study 2, three hundred participants completed dispositional forgiveness scale and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: sad or angry in which they were asked to think of one event in their past that someone made them sad or angry, depending on the experimental conditions. Then they answered measures of state forgiveness, self-esteem and narcissistic personality. Path Analysis reveals that narcissism, self-esteem, dispositional forgiveness, and the nature of events predict state forgiveness (p < .01).