Title: Children are more forgiving of accidental harms across development
Abstract: Forgiveness is a powerful feature of human social life, allowing for the restoration of positive, cooperative relationships. Despite its importance, we know relatively little about how forgiveness develops in early life and the features that shape forgiveness decisions. Here, we investigate forgiveness behavior in children between the ages of 5 and 10 (N = 257) from the United States, varying transgressor intent and remorse in a behavioral task that pits punishment against forgiveness. We find that baseline levels of forgiveness are high, suggesting children assume the best of transgressors in the absence of information about intent and remorse. We also find age-related increases in sensitivity to intent, but not remorse, such that older children are more likely to forgive accidental transgressions. As forgiveness is an important tool in the human social toolkit, exploring the ways in which this ability develops across age can help us better understand the early roots of human cooperation.