ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Comput. Sci.
Sec. Human-Media Interaction
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1617471
Forgiveness in Human-Machine Interaction
Provisionally accepted
Inbal Holtzman*
Galit Nimrod- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
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Forgiveness has been extensively studied across various academic fields, but not in relation to Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). The work presented in this article aims to answer two interrelated questions: what is forgiveness in HMI, and how do we forgive an erring technology? Relying on a literature review of both forgiveness and HMI studies, the article offers a holistic definition of the concept, according to which forgiveness in HMI is a shift in the users' feelings, from negative to positive, that prevents the users from abandoning the erring technology and allows them to keep using it without resentment. Based on a pioneering focus groups study with a convenience sample of 27 young adults, four forgiveness mechanisms are illustrated:(1) evaluating the cost of the error against the benefits of using the technology; (2) transferring responsibility for technology errors to humans (either those "behind the technology" or the users); (3) communicating with or about the technology; and (4) accepting the technology's faults. The results suggest that users undergo complex cognitive and emotional processes when faced with a technological error. As forgiveness is one of the most critical aspects of every relationship, the conceptualization and preliminary study presented here may serve as a starting point for a new area of research and as a springboard for an essential scholarly discussion.
Keywords: Communication, error, Forgiveness, Technology, Focus Groups
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Holtzman and Nimrod. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Inbal Holtzman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
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