The Effect Of Social Distance On Implicit Forgiveness In The Elderly:the Regulatory Effect Of Apology

Forgiveness is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation,and in recent years,it has become a hot topic of concern for many disciplines.Many psychological studies have conducted in-depth consideration of the characteristics of forgiveness and the factors influencing forgiveness in different groups.However,due to the differences in time perception,older people have their own considerations on the choice of forgiveness,so it is necessary to explore the characteristics of forgiveness in older people in depth.Since previous studies have found that the forgiveness of offended people is influenced by several aspects,this study examines the influence of social distance on the forgiveness of Chinese older adults from the perspective of interpersonal relationships,i.e.social distance,which is the most important concern of Chinese older adults.On this basis,it further explores how to improve the level of forgiveness among older adults.Starting from the dynamic and easy-to-operate daily behavior of apologizing,this study uses an experimental method to explore whether apologizing and its related factors have an impact on the relationship between social distance and older adults’ forgiveness.A snowball sampling method was used to investigate the level of implicit forgiveness among older adults aged 60 years or older.200 subjects were selected for Experiment 1 and193 subjects were selected for Experiment 2,with the age of the subjects concentrated between 60 and 75 years.Experiment 1 used the dictator paradigm to create an offensive situation and the Implicit Association Test paradigm to investigate the level of implicit forgiveness in older adults,to investigate whether apologizing or not would have an effect on social distance and implicit forgiveness in older adults:(1)the main effect of social distance on implicit forgiveness was significant,and there was a significant difference in the level of implicit forgiveness between intimate and distant relationships;(2)The moderating effect of apologizing or not apologizing between social distance and implicit forgiveness was significant.(2)The moderating effect between social distance and implicit forgiveness was significant,i.e.,in both the close and distant groups,the level of implicit forgiveness increased as long as the offender apologized,and the level of implicit forgiveness was higher in the close group than in the distant group.Experiment 2 deepened the apology on the basis of Experiment 1,and explored in depth whether different apology styles(verbal vs.nonverbal apology)would have an effect on the relationship between social distance and implicit forgiveness.The results were found to verify the moderating effect of different apologies in the relationship between social distance and implicit forgiveness.The results showed that:(1)the moderating effect of apology style in the pathway between intimate social distance and implicit forgiveness was significant,i.e.,in the intimate distance group,verbal apology by the offender increased the level of implicit forgiveness in older adults,and non-verbal apology by the offender did not increase the level of implicit forgiveness in older adults as much as verbal apology;(2)The moderating effect of apology style in the pathway of distancing social distance and implicit forgiveness was not significant.In summary,the present study concludes that:(1)Apology or not plays a moderating role in social distance to implicit forgiveness,i.e.,the level of implicit forgiveness of older adults increases as long as the offender apologizes under both close social distance and distant social distance,and the level of implicit forgiveness is significantly higher under close distance than under distant distance.(2)Apology mode played a moderating role in the effect of close social distance on implicit forgiveness,i.e.,the level of implicit forgiveness of older adults increased when the offender made a verbal apology at close distance;the level of implicit forgiveness of older adults increased less when the offender made a nonverbal apology than a verbal apology.