2007-2009

• When you break a rule you are likely to use various 'accounts', such as apologies (e.g., saying sorry) and excuses (e.g., claiming the transgression was due to a misunderstanding).
• These kinds of accounts are likely to have self-presentational functions; that is, they can be used to protect yourself from being evaluated too negatively by others.
• But we do not know enough about children’s understanding of this kind of process.  It is unclear what children think about the self-presentational effectiveness of apologies and excuses following different types of rule violations, and we do not know if their reasoning changes with age.
  
• This study investigated young children’s awareness of self-presentational motives for, and consequences of, excuses and apologies following different types of rule violation.
  

• Do children believe that the use of apologies and excuses changes the way a transgressor is judged by others, as well as the likelihood of being punished?
• Do the children's beliefs about the self-presentational effectiveness of apologies and excuses differ when they are used following a moral violation (e.g., hitting someone) versus a social-conventional violation (e.g., dyeing your hair green)?
  
• Does children's reasoning about these processes change with age?

• A total of 120 children aged 4-8 years took part in the study.
  
• Children heard six stories in which a protagonist commits a rule transgression. In two of the stories the transgressors offered an apology for their actions, in two they offered an excuse, and in another two they offered no account.
• Half of the children heard stories about moral violations (e.g., hitting others, damaging others' property) and the other half heard stories about social-conventional violations (e.g., wearing a swimming costume to school, dyeing hair green). 
  
• Children were asked questions about:
• the seriousness of the transgression;
• the extent to which the transgressor should be punished;
• how much the transgressor would be liked by the other children in the story;
• what the other children would think of the transgressor; and
  
• why the transgressor gave the account.

• Children believed that transgressors who offered no account should be punished more than transgressors who offered an excuse or an apology (especially following moral violations), but no differentiation was made between the two accounts. 
  
• However, children believed that transgressors who gave an apology would be liked more, and would be more likely to be evaluated positively, than transgressors who gave an excuse.
  
• Even the youngest children showed this pattern of differentiation between apologies and excuses.
• Excuses were more likely than apologies to be seen as motivated by a desire to avoid punishment, whereas apologies were more likely than excuses to be seen as motivated by attention to others’ feelings. 
  
• References to concerns about social evaluation increased with age and were more common following social-conventional rule violations. 
  

• Primary school children recognise that both apologies and excuses can reduce the extent to which a transgressor deserves punishment.
• But even the youngest children see apologies as leading to significantly more positive social evaluation than excuses.
  
• The results indicate a subtle understanding of distinctions between different 'facework' strategies in young children.