Victims commonly respond to experienced wrongdoing by punishing or forgiving the transgressor. While much research has looked at predictors and immediate consequences of these post-transgression responses, comparably less research has addressed the conditions under which punishment or forgiveness have positive or negative downstream consequences on the victim–transgressor relationship. Drawing from research on Social Value Orientation (SVO), we argue that both forgiveness and punishment can be rooted in either prosocial (i.e., relationship- or other-oriented), individualistic (i.e., self-oriented), or competitive (i.e., harm-oriented) motives pursued by the victim. Furthermore, we posit that downstream consequences of forgiveness and punishment crucially depend on how the transgressor interprets the victim’s response. The novel motive-attribution framework presented here highlights the importance of alignment between a victim’s motives and a transgressor’s motive attributions underlying post-transgression responses. This framework thus contributes to a better understanding of positive and negative dynamics following post-transgression interactions.

受害者通常会通过惩罚或宽恕违法者来应对所经历的不当行为。虽然许多研究着眼于这些犯罪后反应的预测因素和直接后果，但相对较少的研究涉及惩罚或宽恕对受害者与犯罪者关系产生积极或消极的下游影响的条件。根据社会价值取向（SVO）的研究，我们认为宽恕和惩罚都可以植根于亲社会（即关系或其他导向）、个人主义（即自我导向）或竞争性（即伤害） -定向）受害者追求的动机。此外，我们认为宽恕和惩罚的下游后果主要取决于违法者如何解释受害者的反应。这里提出的新颖的动机归因框架强调了受害者的动机和犯罪者的动机归因之间的一致性的重要性，这些动机归因于犯罪后的反应。因此，该框架有助于更好地理解犯罪后互动后的积极和消极动态。