Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Responding To Our Own Transgressions: An Experimental Writing Study Of Repentance, Offense Rumination, Self-Justification, And Distraction, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, Nova G. Hinman, Julie J. Exline, Timothy Brandt

Faculty Publications

This between-subjects experiment focused on offender responses to their past interpersonal transgressions in self-identified Christian undergraduates (55 M, 85 F). Participants completed pre-post measures for one of four randomly assigned 20-minute writing conditions: repentance (i.e., writing about constructive sorrow, apology, restitution, behavior change), offense rumination (i.e., negative wallowing), self-justification (i.e., externalizing blame, minimizing costs), or distraction (i.e., daily details). Offense rumination and repentance writing included the most cost-oriented language; rumination had the most negative emotion language. Mixed within (pre vs. post) X between group ANOVA interactions yielded theoretically meaningful results. Repentance reduced self-condemnation and regret while increasing conciliatory motivations toward …