When one individual commits a transgression or aggressive act against another, third parties often have expectations about how the victim should respond, even when they do not have any personal involvement in the event. When their justice expectations are violated, such as when a victim forgives the offender for an act that third parties deem too heinous to forgive, third parties may react in a way that is critical of the victim. This research examines how third-party observers react when victims forgive seemingly ‘unforgivable’ offences. Study 1, a scenario-based experiment, showed that although third parties were not directly critical of a forgiving victim, they did not agree with the decision to forgive. Study 2 replicated these findings and explored in more depth third parties’ justice-related feelings about the transgression and the victim, using both quantitative and qualitative data. Results suggest that although third parties are reluctant to directly criticize ‘extreme’ forgivers, they are not supportive of their decision to forgive. This could have implications for victims, who may interpret this disagreement with their choice as a lack of support.

当一个人对另一个人犯下违法行为或侵略行为时，第三方通常会对受害者应该如何回应抱有期望，即使他们没有任何个人参与事件。当他们的正义期望遭到违反时，例如，当受害者因第三方认为太令人发指而无法原谅的行为而原谅罪犯时，第三方可能会以批评受害者的方式做出反应。这项研究调查了第三方观察员在受害者原谅看似“不可原谅”的罪行时的反应。研究 1 是一项基于情景的实验，表明尽管第三方并未直接批评宽恕的受害者，但他们并不同意宽恕的决定。研究 2 复制了这些发现，并更深入地探讨了第三方对违法行为和受害者与正义相关的感受，使用定量和定性数据。结果表明，虽然第三方不愿意直接批评“极端”的宽恕者，但他们并不支持他们宽恕的决定。这可能会对受害者产生影响，他们可能会将这种对自己选择的分歧解释为缺乏支持。