Transgression, Forgiveness, and Revenge 199and, as a result, are inclined to respond to interpersonal problems with vengeance
(McCullough et al., 2001). Not surprisingly, dispositional vengefulness has been
shown to be negatively related to forgiveness and positively related to appraisals of
revenge. For instance, McCullough, et al. (2001) found that the higher individuals
scored on a measure of dispositional vengefulness, the more they ruminated about
an offense, the less they forgave the offender, and the more slowly their desires for
revenge dissipated over time. Sheppard and Boon (2012) also found that, when
considering its benefits and costs, people were quicker to perceive revenge as desir-
able and slower to perceive it as undesirable, the higher their scores on dispositional
vengefulness.
Characteristics of the Friendship
McCullough’s (McCullough et al., 2013) evolutionary perspective on revenge pre-
sumes that interdependence plays a pivotal role in determining the results of the
mental calculus by which individuals determine which course of action to pursue
in the aftermath of wrongdoing. If the relational characteristics most relationship
researchers have examined in their investigations of forgiveness are any indication,
they appear to share this point of view.
Research suggests, for example, that commitment may be associated with for-
giveness in several theoretically and practically important ways. First, it appears
to promote forgiveness. The greater their commitment to a romantic partner, for
instance, the more individuals are inclined to forgive the partner’s breaches of
wrongdoing (Fehr, et al., 2010). Second, commitment has been shown to moder-
ate the impact of forgiveness on psychological well- being (Karremans, Van Lange,
Ouwerkerk, & Kluwer, 2003). Specifically, across a variety of types of relationships,
the psychological benefits that individuals appear to derive from forgiving their
partners increase commensurate with their commitment to their partners. In addi-
tion, there is longitudinal evidence suggesting that forgiveness may help to preserve
commitment to a dating partner in the wake of severe transgressions (Ysseldyk &
Wohl, 2012). In other words, the association between commitment and forgiveness
may be bidirectional such that forgiveness contributes to relationship maintenance
through preventing declines in commitment at the same time that commitment
itself encourages forgiveness.
Although characteristics of the relationship between avenger and avengee have
not yet captured much attention among scholars who study revenge, there is tenta-
tive evidence linking commitment with appraisals of revenge, as well. For exam-
ple, in a recent study examining the experiences of avengees— that is, targets of
revenge— Boon and Yoshimura (in press) found that individuals who believed they
had been the targets of an important relational partner’s act of revenge reported
lower commitment to their partners than individuals who believed their partner