The main goal of the present research is to examine socio-ecological hypothesis on apology and compensation. Specifically, we conducted four studies to test the idea that an apology is an effective means to induce reconciliation in a residentially stable community, whereas compensation is an effective means in a residentially mobile community. In Studies 1, 2a, and 2b, American and Japanese participants (national difference in mobility; Study 1) or non-movers and movers (within-nation difference in mobility; Studies 2a and 2b) imagined the situations in which they were hurt by their friends and rated to what extent they would be willing to maintain their friendships upon receipt of apology or compensation. The results showed that compensation was more effective in appeasing residentially mobile people (i.e., Americans and movers) than stable people (i.e., Japanese and non-movers), while apology was slightly more effective appeasing residentially stable people than residentially mobile people (significant in Study 1; not significant in Studies 2a and 2b). In Study 3, by conducting an economics game experiment, we directly tested the hypothesis that mobility would impair the effectiveness of apology and enhance the effectiveness of compensation. The results again partially supported our hypothesis: In the high mobility condition, compensation increased one's willingness to continue the relationship with the offender, when compared to willingness in the low mobility condition. The importance of socio-ecological perspective on the forgiveness literature is discussed.
The present data article provides a descriptive and analytical exploration on the links between positive mental health, subjective happiness, forgiveness, humility, and information literacy self-efficacy among 969 undergraduate students from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. There are 355 males and 614 females with an average age of 20.47 years and a standard deviation of 1.87. Respondents are recruited by simple random sampling using face to face method, at one time data retrieval during 2019. The Indonesian, Malaysian and Thailand-version questionnaires were provided to each groups of participants according to their nationality and native language, using back-to-back analysis. The socio-demographic details of the respondents, descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation matrix of all variables in all groups according to country, results of regression analysis of variables, and Kruskal Wallis for all five variables in all groups are provided.