The evidence behind the conversation
Forgiveness is more than a personal virtue. A growing body of research connects it with emotional well-being, stress, healthier relationships, and the ways we respond to conflict. Explore the evidence behind a capability that deserves a place in our conversations about leadership and organizational culture.
What the research tells us
75%
of female executives surveyed reported experiencing imposter syndrome at some point in their careers.
KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit Report, 2020
Read the report4,598
participants in a randomized trial that found a brief forgiveness-workbook intervention reduced unforgiveness, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms compared with a delayed-intervention group.
International REACH Forgiveness Intervention, BMJ Public Health, 2024
Read the study332
adults followed over five weeks in research finding that increases in forgiveness were associated with decreases in perceived stress and improvements in mental health symptoms.
Loren Toussaint and colleagues, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2016
Read the study62%
of American adults say they need more forgiveness in their personal lives, according to a Fetzer Institute survey cited by Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Johns Hopkins Medicine, “Forgiveness: Your Health Depends on It”
Read the articleOrganizational case study
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
£2.5M
Estimated economic benefit
An estimate reported in the case study referenced in Dionne’s One Million Cups presentation. Pending verification against the primary calculation before it is presented as a confirmed return.
Fewer punitive responses and suspensions.
A culture where employees feel supported, valued, and heard.
Greater willingness to speak up, report concerns, and learn from mistakes.
A restorative leadership principle: creating conditions where people can acknowledge mistakes, take responsibility, and participate in solutions.
Restorative leadership principle · not an independently measured Mersey Care result
When employees feel psychologically safe, supported, and heard, they are better positioned to acknowledge mistakes, engage in honest conversations, and take responsibility for improving outcomes. A restorative culture doesn’t remove accountability. It creates conditions for accountability to be practiced with fairness, learning, and repair.
Psychological safety and accountability are not opposites. They reinforce each other.
Dionne’s leadership interpretation of restorative culture, not a direct quotation from Mersey Care and not a separately measured research result.
Context
Mersey Care’s restorative just and learning culture illustrates how organizations can move toward more constructive responses to mistakes, emphasizing fairness, employee support, and organizational learning.
The directional outcomes above describe areas of reported impact. They do not show that forgiveness alone produced the financial benefit, and Mersey Care did not use the RESET™ or D.R.E.A.M.™ frameworks. Forgiveness is good business: accountability and compassion do not have to be competing values.
Source
Kaur et al. (2019), MATEC Web of Conferences, 273, 01007.
Cited in Dionne’s presentation of the Mersey Care case study.
Go deeper
Research becomes meaningful when we connect it to the decisions we make, the relationships we navigate, and the cultures we create.
The science of forgiveness
Drawing on the Global Flourishing Study, which includes more than 207,000 participants across 23 countries, researchers found that people who reported forgiving more frequently tended to experience greater well-being over time, particularly in mental health, purpose, hope, and relationship satisfaction.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health · March 18, 2026
The science of forgiveness
Research involving approximately 4,500 participants across five locations examined the effects of a forgiveness intervention, finding improvements in forgiveness alongside benefits for mental health, hope, and well-being. This article explores the relationship between forgiveness, healing, and human flourishing.
Tyler J. VanderWeele, PhD · Psychology Today, Human Flourishing · March 2023
Forgiveness & health
Johns Hopkins Medicine examines how forgiveness relates to stress, emotional well-being, sleep, cardiovascular health, and the importance of releasing long-held resentment.
Johns Hopkins Medicine · Dr. Karen L. Swartz
From evidence to application
Research helps us understand why forgiveness matters. Leadership development creates opportunities to examine our patterns, strengthen our responses, and practice new ways of relating to ourselves and others.