Underdog Forgiveness Effect And Its Mechanism

When people observe competitions between two unbalanced parties,they are often willing to empathize and support the loveable underdog,which is called underdog effect.Previous studies about underdog effect mainly focused on positive competitive situation,and yielded fruitful results.On these grounds,the present research aims at exploring the attitude and behavior intentions of third parties in negative competitive situation,and gaining insight into the underdog forgiveness effect and its potential mechanism.Three studies were conducted with undergraduates.Study 1 investigated the effect of competition status on attitude and behavior intentions of unbiased parties by manipulating the relative competition status of the subject of unfair competition.Results confirmed the underdog forgiveness effect.Based on Social Identity Theory(SIT),Study 2 tested the moderate effect of underdog identification on underdog forgiveness effect.Study 3 established a moderated mediation model on the basis of intergroup attribution bias theory and relevant research findings to explore the mediating effect of external attribution and the moderating effect of underdog identification on the mediation path.The main results of three studies are as follows:(1)Third parties were more willing to forgive the disadvantaged competitors despite their misconduct,namely the underdog forgiveness effect exists.(2)The underdog identification played a positive regulation effect on underdog forgiveness effect.(3)External attribution of misconduct was found as a mediator in underdog forgiveness effect and this effect path was positively moderated by the underdog identification.