Poster #125 - Children Forgive In-group Members More Willingly, but Only if In-group Members Show Remorse

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Humans rely heavily on cooperation to survive and thrive (Tomasello, 2009). So when our cooperative relationships break down, how do we repair them? One key is forgiveness, which allows us to reconcile relationships and thus maintain cooperation (McCullough, 2008; Worthington, 2010). Recent research has revealed that preschool-age children are capable of forgiving transgressors who show remorse. For instance, when two people damage a child’s picture and one of them shows remorse, 5-year-olds evaluate the remorseful transgressor more positively than the unremorseful one (Oostenbroek & Vaish, in press).
Interestingly, however, we are not equally forgiving of all individuals. The valuable relationship hypothesis states that forgiveness has evolved to serve, and is therefore particularly evident in, cooperative rather than non-cooperative relationships. Some research with adults supports this view (Fehr et al., 2010). Yet, there is no research investigating the development of this important facet of forgiveness. The current set of studies thus asked: Are children more forgiving of transgressors with whom they have cooperative rather than non-cooperative relationships?
We operationalized cooperative relationships as in-group members, and non-cooperative relationships as out-group members. Group membership exerts a powerful influence over children’s cognition and behavior, even when the groups are novel. For instance, by age 5 years, children prefer members of their own group to members of another group (Dunham et al., 2011), and negatively evaluate out-group members (Aboud, 2003; Oostenbroek & Over, 2015).
In Study 1, we asked whether children are more forgiving of a remorseful in-group transgressor than a remorseful out-group transgressor. Four- and 5-year-olds (N = 20 per age group) were assigned to a novel group (yellow or green group). Children were introduced to two adult experimenters – an in-group and out-group member. Children and the adults then drew a picture. While admiring the child’s picture, both adults accidentally tore it and both then showed remorse. As predicted by the valuable relationship hypothesis, 5-year-olds were more forgiving of the in-group member than the out-group member, as evidenced by their more positive evaluations of and greater prosocial behavior towards the in-group member (binomial probabilities, all ps < .041). Four-year-olds, on the other hand, did not show these effects (all ps > .263).
In Study 2, we asked whether 5-year-olds are always more forgiving of in-group transgressors, even when such transgressors are unremorseful and thus do not demonstrate a cooperative intent. Five-year-olds (N = 20) were assigned to a novel group. The design was similar to Study 1 except that only the out-group member was remorseful (the in-group member was neutral but unremorseful). Strikingly, 5-year-olds were now more forgiving of the out-group member than the in-group member, as evidenced by their more positive evaluations of and greater prosocial behavior towards the out-group member (all ps < .041).
In sum, children more readily forgive a remorseful in-group member than a remorseful out-group member, providing evidence for the valuable relationship hypothesis of forgiveness. However, children do not blindly forgive in-group transgressors, only when such transgressors show remorse and thus demonstrate that they are committed cooperation partners.

Authors

• Janine Oostenbroek, The University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Amrisha Vaish, The University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author