Forgive for Good Research

Two recent meta-analyses offer clear evidence of the effectiveness of forgiveness education (Akhtar & Barlow, 2018; Wade, Hoyt, Kidwell, & Worthington, 2014). Both studies reached the same conclusion, that compared to the control group, or even people getting alternative treatments, individuals in forgiveness interventions (regardless of whose method was used) ended up about .5 standardized units higher on forgiveness.

The results of specific outcome studies of the Forgive for Good method of promoting forgiveness demonstrate positive results in a number of domains.

The original Stanford Forgiveness Project was a randomized clinical trial involving 55 students who completed a six-session, in-person training using the Forgive for Good method (Luskin, 1999). Results showed that over ten weeks individuals in the Forgive for Good condition showed greater forgiveness and physical vitality and less hurt and anger, as compared to the control group.

A similar test of 25 hypertensive patients who completed eight to twelve hours of in-person Forgive for Good training again showed that pre- to post-intervention reductions in anger expression were greater for the people trained in forgiveness as compared to the control condition (Tibbits, Ellis, Piramelli, Luskin, & Lukman, 2006). In addition, for hypertensive folks who were high in anger, forgiveness helped lower their blood pressure.

In what is to date the largest randomized trial on any forgiveness method, 259 adults participated (Harris et al., 2006) in a Forgive for Good study. Those who received nine hours of in-person Forgive for Good training showed greater increases, as compared to controls, in forgiving a specific person as well as forgiveness self-efficacy over the span of four months. In addition, the participants showed less stress, less anger, fewer symptoms of stress and a greater sense of spiritual well-being than the control group.

In an uncontrolled study of 104 employees of a financial services organization who participated in a 6-hour positive psychology training with an emphasis on forgiveness  participants showed pre- to post-intervention increases in positive states, physical vitality, and health-related quality of life and decreases in stress and anger (Toussaint, Luskin, Aberman, & DeLorenzo, 2019). Participants also showed a 24% increase in gross sales which was well over double the sales productivity of other employees who served as matched controls.  In addition to the educational training each participant received supportive follow up phone calls for six to twelve months.

The Forgive for Good method was compared to a Christian forgiveness method at a small Lutheran college in the Midwest (Toussaint, et. al 2020).  The six hours of forgiveness classes were taught entirely by undergraduates and both the secular and the religious methods were well used by students in the Christian setting.  Both Unforgiveness and forgiveness were measured at pre-, post- intervention, and again at a two-month follow-up.  Both forgiveness methods led to decreased unforgiveness and increased forgiveness at the end of the six week training and the positive gains were maintained at the follow up assessment two months later.

The Forgive for Good method has also been adapted to help individuals from conflict-affected areas. In a randomized trial using 24 Sierra Leonean survivors of civil war, those who participated in six to eight hours of Forgive for Good training showed greater pre- to post-intervention increases in benevolence, gratitude, and happiness, and decreases in stress, negative mood, and depression than did controls (Toussaint, Peddle, Cheadle, Sellu, & Luskin, 2009).

In two small, uncontrolled trials (N₁ = 5; N₂ = 17) of Protestant and Catholic people who had immediate family members murdered in the Northern Ireland conflict, a one-week Forgive for Good training resulted in improvements in forgiveness, stress, depression, and optimism (Luskin & Bland, 2000, 2001).  The first study was of women who had their son’s killed and the second involved immediate family of any kind.