Correlates of Divine Forgiveness in South Africa: National Survey

A professional survey company undertook a cross-sectional national survey amongst a representative sample of black (African), coloured, white, and Indian South African (SA) adults drawn from the general population. Prior research (but not in South Africa, SA) has identified key constructs known (or predicted) to correlate (positively or negatively) with experiencing Divine Forgiveness (DF). The broad aims of the study are to: (1) replicate prior findings of correlates of DF (e.g., religiosity, empathy); (2) identify additional constructs that should be measured when researching DF in SA; (3) investigate relations between DF and different types of forgiveness (especially, intergroup forgiveness, IGF, including items about both racial ingroup and outgroup members’ transgressions, during the apartheid era), controlling for known correlates of each; (4) investigate the costs and benefits of DF; and (5) conduct Surplus Value Tests (SVTs) of DF for both interpersonal forgiveness (IPF) and intergroup forgiveness (IGF).