From Theory to Practice: Forgiveness as a Mechanism to Repair Conflicts in CMC

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) online members often behave in undesirable ways, therefore creating a need for an active regulating force. Trust and reputation mechanisms have been adopted to address this problem and in doing so have eliminated the high costs of employing a human moderator. However, these systems have emphasized the need to ‘punish' a given offender, while neglecting to account for alternative ways to repair the offence e.g. by forgiveness. In this paper, we define a theoretical model of forgiveness which is operationalized using a fuzzy logic inference system and then applied in a particular scenario. It is argued that forgiveness in CMC may work as a possible prosocial mechanism, which in the short-term can help resolve a given conflict and in the long-term can add to an increasingly prosocial and homeostatic environment.

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