A recent study suggests that teaching children to understand other people's perspectives could make it easier for them to learn how to forgive other people.
"Forgiveness is important in children and adults for restoring relationships and limiting future conflicts," says Kelly Lynn Mulvey, lead author of the study. "But we didn't know much about what makes children more likely to forgive others, particularly from early childhood to adolescence."
To that end, Mulvey and her collaborators enlisted 185 children, between the ages of 5 and 14, in the study. Researchers conducted in an in-depth interview with each child that collected background information and assessed the child's "theory of mind" skills.
Researchers then led each child through a series of scenarios involving other children who are "in group" and "out group." Specifically, each study participant was told they were part of a group, such as the green team. During interviews, researchers described some children in the scenarios as also being on the green team, while other children in the scenarios were on the yellow team. In each scenario, interviewers asked study participants whether they were willing to forgive a group that left them out of a game or activity.
There were three main findings. First, children are more likely to forgive someone if they have apologized. Second, children are more likely to forgive people who are "in group." Third, the more advanced a child's Theory of Mind skills are, the more likely they are to forgive others.