CBB Seminar ~ Felipe de Brigard, PhD ~ Duke University

Felipe de Brigard (Duke University)

Topic: Memory and forgiveness

Victims sometimes forgive the perpetrators of past wrongdoings, either to repair a relationship or simply to move on. After forgiving, however, victims typically still remember what happened. Yet, the memory of the wrongdoing does not elicit the same affective and reactive attitudes it once did. How does forgiveness interact with memory to bring about this emotional change? In this talk I will offer conceptual and empirical reasons to think of forgiveness as mollifying the affective contents of retrieved memories of past wrongdoings via a process of emotional reappraisal. I will also show how this research, which is currently being conducted with victims of political violence in Colombia, can have implications for peace and reconciliation strategies in post-conflict societies.