Poster #61 - Do Young Children Understand the Functions of Forgiveness?

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Forgiveness is one important key to restoring and maintaining cooperative relationships. Previous studies have shown that children as young as four years old show forgiving behavior, and that around the age of five to six years, children can forgive transgressors considering social information about them, such as their intent and apology (e.g., Oostenbroek &Vaish, 2019; Liao, Li, & Su, 2014). However, little is known about how children understand forgiveness. Based on previous research, we focused on the two main functions of forgiveness: to restore positive relationships between the transgressor and victim and to change the victim’s negative feelings toward the transgressor into benevolence. In this study, we investigated whether six-year old children (n=51) understand the two main functions of forgiveness and whether their understanding of the functions transcends into their actual forgiving behavior.
Participants listened to two stories in which the main character experiences a transgression, receives an apology from the transgressor, and either forgives (Forgiving story) or does not forgive (Rejecting story) the transgressor. They answered questions about the expected ending of the stories and the main character’s feelings toward the transgressor. As predicted, children expected the main character to “play together” with the transgressor rather than “play separately” in the Forgiving story, but not in the Rejecting story (Figure 1). Moreover, in the Forgiving story, children believed the victim’s feelings towards the transgressor to be negative when the transgression occurred (Figure 2, pre-apology score) and to change into more positive ones after forgiving the transgressor (post-apology score). In the Rejecting story, children believed the victim’s feelings towards the transgressor to stay negative even after receiving an apology from the transgressor. In addition, we measured the children’s forgiving behavior to examine if there is a relation between their understanding of the functions and their behavior, but no significant correlation between them was found.
To conclude, we found that six-year old children understand that forgiveness can restore the positive relationships between the transgressor and victim and can change the victim’s negative feelings toward the transgressor to more positive ones. On the other hand, we could not find a relation between their understanding of the two main functions of forgiveness and their actual forgiving behavior. The present findings can help us better understand forgiveness in early childhood and may contribute to the improvement of moral education.

Authors

• Rizu Toda, Osaka University
  Presenting Author

• Nazu Toda, Osaka University

• Yasuhiro Kanakogi, Osaka Uinversity