SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2023

The current study raised two hypotheses. It was expected that culture had a moderator effect on the publicity of infidelity (private vs. public conditions) and forgiveness. Moreover, it was expected that self-face maintenance had a mediation effect mediator effect on the cultural difference in the publicity of infidelity and forgiveness. However, the hypotheses were not supported by the current experiment. The results showed that, regardless of culture and the publicity of infidelity, people were less willing to forgive cheating behavior. It was reasonable to think that people regard infidelity as a great moral hazard and are reluctant to forgive it because they considered it a great risk to the individual and the family. Meanwhile, the results also suggested that self-face maintenance did not serve as a mediator. One possible explanation was that regardless of the publicity of infidelity, it would cost an individual a lot to forgive the infidelity. Hence, individuals were not likely to forgive and probably tend to end up the relationship.