Abstract

Interpersonal hurts and offenses affect nearly everyone. Whether committed intentionally or unintentionally, between loved ones or strangers, transgressions can arouse strong and negative emotions connected to guilt and shame in transgressors, and sadness, fear, and anger in victims. These emotions can emerge as an amalgamation of hurt-filled bitterness, or unforgiveness. Transgressors are faced with the decision of whether to apologize and seek forgiveness. Even if never asked, victims are faced with the question of what to do about their unforgiveness. Some may seek to override their pain by stoking the fires of revenge; others may try to reduce their unforgiveness as they accept that bad things happen even to good people, tolerate it, minimize it, ignore it, excuse it, or forbear it. Alternatively, victims can also choose two potentially complementary options to respond to the injustice and reduce their attendant unforgiveness: They can pursue justice, and they can grant forgiveness. In this chapter, I address the peripheral physiological patterns—of facial muscles, skin conductance, and cardiovascular measures—associated with unforgiveness, forgiveness, and justice, organizing the accumulated data patterns within a framework of emotion.