The Influence Of Social Identity And Self Attrition On Intergroup Forgiveness Under Different Degrees Of Offense

Social identity theory is one of the most important group theories.It puts forward people’s basic needs for positive social identity and improves the level of self-esteem,and explains the reasons for people’s many behaviors at the interpersonal and intergroup levels.However,the previous researches on intergroup forgiveness lack the discussion of the role of social identity,Are groups with high social identity or groups with low social identity more likely to forgive when they are offended at the intergroup level?Through two experiments,this study explores how social identity affects intergroup forgiveness under different degrees of offense and how ego‐depletion plays a regulatory role.Experiment 1 is a mixed experimental design with two factors.The independent variables are the degree of offence（high offence,medium offence and low offence）and social identity（high identity vs low identity）.The degree of offence is an intra subject variable and social identity is an inter subject variable.This experiment uses the feedback information of typing task to start the subjects’ different degrees of social identity,and then obtains the subjects’ degree of intergroup forgiveness in the paradigm of prisoner’s dilemma between the most differentiated groups.The results show that social identity will promote intergroup forgiveness,while the degree of offence will have a negative impact.In addition,there is an interaction between social identity and the degree of offence.The simple effect shows that social identity has a positive effect on intergroup forgiveness only under the high degree of offence,but has no effect on intergroup forgiveness under the medium and low degree of offence.Experiment 2 is a mixed experimental design with three factors.The independent variables are the degree of offence（high offence,medium offence and low offence）,social identity（high identity vs low identity）and ego‐depletion（high loss vs low loss）.ego‐depletion and social identity are inter subject variables,and the degree of offence is an intra subject variable.This experiment uses "e" typing task and simple typing task to start the subjects’ ego‐depletion state and low ego‐depletion state,then uses the feedback information of typing task to start the subjects’ different degrees of social identity,and finally obtains the subjects’ degree of intergroup forgiveness in the prisoner’s dilemma model between the most differentiated groups.It was showed that the results of Experiment 1 were repeated in the low ego‐depletion group,that is,social identity had a significant role in promoting intergroup forgiveness under the high degree of aggression,but in the high ego‐depletion group,social identity lost its role in promoting intergroup forgiveness under the high degree of offense.The conclusions of this study are as follows:（1）the degree of offense and ego‐depletion of subjects will reduce intergroup forgiveness,while social identity will promote intergroup forgiveness.（2）When being offended to a high degree,social identity will promote intergroup forgiveness,and improving social identity will increase the degree of intergroup forgiveness,but under the condition of low or medium degree of offense,social identity has no effect on intergroup forgiveness.（3）Under high ego‐depletion,social identity loses its function.When being offended to a higher degree,social identity has no effect on the degree of intergroup forgiveness in the high ego‐depletion group,but it will promote the intergroup forgiveness in the low ego‐depletion group.