Social decision-making following interpersonal transgressions: Word to the wise

The primary aim of this research was to test the relation between wisdom and transgression victims' prosocial (forgiving), neutral (inhibiting), and antisocial (unforgiving) post-transgression responses (PTRs) in applied contexts. In addition, this research tested the role of two boundary conditions, transgressors' intent (Study 1 and 2) and transgression frequency (Study 2), in victims' tailoring their PTRs to targeted situations. We predicted that the relation between wisdom and victims' PTRs would vary as a function of these two contextual factors. Specifically, we predicted that wiser victims would respond more prosocially and less antisocially, but they would also tailor their responses to the context to facilitate adaptive responses. Two experiments that varied in design, setting (laboratory vs. online), and nature of transgression (personal vs. extrapersonal) largely supported the hypotheses and systematically replicated the findings. The overall pattern of responses provides empirical evidence for the theorized, but rarely tested, association between wisdom and prosocial responses. Wiser individuals also appeared particularly forgiving toward trivial offenses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).