Victim vs bystander: balancing a transgressor's intention and apology in Chinese children's forgiveness

Forgiveness plays a crucial role in social functioning, particularly in collectivist cultures such as China, where relational orientation and group harmony are highly valued. Children's forgiveness is shaped by multiple social cues, including the transgressor's intention, apology, and the social perspective from which the transgression is evaluated. However, how these cues jointly influence forgiveness in a collectivist context remains underexplored. This study employed scenario-based experiments to investigate how Chinese children aged 4-6, assigned to either a victim or a bystander perspective, integrated transgressors' intentions and apologies in forgiveness. Experiment 1 (N = 136) examined the effects of transgressor intention (intentional, unintentional) and social perspective (victim, bystander) on children's forgiveness. Experiment 2 (N = 313) further explored the interaction between intention and apology (apologetic, unapologetic) across perspectives. The results showed that children were more likely to forgive unintentional and apologetic transgressors, and that bystanders showed greater forgiveness than victims; apologies moderated the influence of intention on children's forgiveness; perspective further influenced how children balanced intention and apology in their forgiveness. Overall, this study represents an initial step toward understanding children's forgiveness in a collectivist cultural context.