Victims of crime often want the truth about what happened. Yet, how exactly is truth valuable? Commonly, truth is thought to be instrumentally valuable by providing useful knowledge. Truth would be beneficial for victims because specific information may afford re-appraisals or greater understanding. The present research shows that truth may have inherent value independent from information content by providing truth knowing, a subjective sense of having the complete account, which facilitates closure. In Study 1 (n = 200) and Study 2 (n = 195), participants imagined themselves as victims of crime and were presented with one of two reports identical in content but designed to appear either complete or incomplete. As predicted, the complete report increased truth knowing and not understanding. Truth knowing was associated with greater closure, reduced affect, and greater forgiveness. In Study 3 (n = 157), real crime victims responded to one of two question sets making salient either the completeness or incompleteness of the information available about the crime. Salience of the completeness of information increased truth knowing, increased closure, reduced anger, and was associated with greater forgiveness. Findings suggest that truth knowing may facilitate the recovery of victims independently from instrumental value derived from content.

中文翻译：

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真相是它自己的奖励：信息的完整性、了解真相的感觉和受害者的封闭

犯罪受害者通常想知道所发生的事情的真相。然而，真理究竟有多有价值？通常，通过提供有用的知识，真理被认为具有工具价值。真相对受害者是有益的，因为具体信息可能会提供重新评估或更好的理解。目前的研究表明，真相可能具有独立于信息内容的内在价值，通过提供真相认识，一种拥有完整账户的主观感觉，这有助于关闭。在研究 1 ( n  = 200) 和研究 2 ( n = 195），参与者将自己想象成犯罪的受害者，并收到两份内容相同但设计为完整或不完整的报告之一。正如预测的那样，完整的报告增加了对真相的了解和不了解。知道真相与更大的封闭、减少的影响和更大的宽恕有关。在研究 3 ( n  = 157) 中，真正的犯罪受害者回答了两个问题集之一，这些问题集突出了有关犯罪的可用信息的完整性或不完整性。信息完整性的显着性增加了对真相的了解，增加了封闭性，减少了愤怒，并与更大的宽恕有关。调查结果表明，了解真相可能会独立于从内容中获得的工具价值来促进受害者的康复。