Is Apologizing Enough? An Examination of Children and Adolescents’ Intergroup Forgiveness

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Research on forgiveness in the past has focused on adults, however, significantly less research has looked at children and adolescents. Previous research on adolescents has found that forgiveness is positively associated with wellbeing and positive adjustment to victimization (Barcaccia et al., 2018). Recent research with children has explored third-party evaluation of forgiveness (Oostenbroek & Vaish, 2018), yet less is known about children’s forgiveness when they are the victim of a transgression. In addition, though there has been research examining intergroup forgiveness in adults (Hornsey & Wohl, 2013), little is known about forgiveness in children and adolescents in the context of ingroups and outgroups.
To address these gaps, we examined whether children and adolescents (Mage = 9.23 years, SD = 2.12, range = 5-14, N = 185) forgave groups that transgressed against them. Participants were told a story about a group of children who did not pass a soccer ball to them. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups, ingroup no apology, ingroup apology, outgroup no apology, or outgroup apology. Participants made judgments about the acceptability of the exclusion, behavioral forgiveness (the possibility of them passing the ball to the transgressor following the transgression), and expectations of forgiveness (whether they expect they would forgive the transgressor).
A 2 (Gender: Male, Female) X 2 (Age Group: Younger, Older) X 2 (Group: Ingroup, Outgroup) X 2 (Behavior: Apology, No Apology) ANOVA was conducted to explore expected forgiveness. Gender, age, and ingroup and out group were nonsignificant. However, results indicated that whether the transgressors apologized or not was significantly related to forgiving the transgressors F (1,168) = 10.00, p=.002, η p 2 = .06. Participants were more likely to forgive when the transgressors apologized (Figure 1).
A 2 (Gender: Male, Female) X 2 (Age Group: Younger, Older) X 2 (Group: Ingroup, Outgroup) X 2 (Behavior: Apology, No Apology) ANOVA was conducted to examine the possibility of passing the ball to the transgressor, a behavioral aspect of forgiveness. Gender and age were nonsignificant. Results indicated that whether the transgressors were ingroup or outgroup members F (1,167) = 14.84, p < .01, η p 2 = .08 or if the transgressors apologized or not F (1,168) = 11.06, p = .01, η p 2 = .06 was significantly related to their willingness to pass the ball. Specifically, participants were more willing to pass the ball if the transgressor was an ingroup member, or if the transgressor apologized (Figure 2). These results indicate that whether a transgressor apologizes and whether they are an ingroup member or not motivates forgiveness behaviors.
Taken together, this study contributes to the rapidly growing body of literature that examines the various factors that may influence forgiveness responses and behaviors in relation to group membership.

Authors

• Emily A Herry, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Secil Gonultas, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly Lynn S Mulvey, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Peter Strelan, University of Adelaide
  Non-Presenting Author