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We examined the hypothesis that the conscious self-correction process in the models of lay citizens' determination of punishment could inhibit the retributive goal that was their instinctive default objective. In two experiments, we tested whether an instruction to ignore the retributive goal could eliminate the influence of information about the seriousness of the crime on the severity of the punishment. If the retributive goal can be inhibited, the instruction would eliminate the information's influence on the punishment's severity. However, the persistence of the information's influence would mean that the retributive goal is not inhibited. The result showed that the instruction eliminated the influence of information that decreased the crime's seriousness but could barely reduce the influence of information that increased the seriousness. We concluded that self-correction cannot inhibit the retributive goal when its inhibition would lead to a more lenient punishment.

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Felt understanding is linked to intergroup relations. However, almost all of the studies linking felt understanding to intergroup relations have been conducted in a relation where ingroups and outgroups cohabit within a community having a shared superordinate political structure/system (cohabitating target). It is unclear whether this association generaliddzes to another relation that ingroups and outgroups live in separate communities with different superordinate systems (separate target). The present work investigates whether the predictive role of felt understanding in intergroup relations differs across the two targets—Chinese people in Japan (CIJ) and Chinese people outside of Japan (COJ). Data were collected in Japan by two online surveys among 536 Japanese (189 females) in 2021. Multigroup analysis found that felt understanding was linked to positive intergroup outcomes (positive action tendencies, outgroup trust, intergroup orientation) for both cohabiting and separate target conditions. Also, post hoc mediation analysis suggested that the cohabiting/separate target condition was positively related to felt understanding, and higher felt understanding, in turn, results in the outcomes. These results indicate that felt understanding can be beneficial even in intergroup relations not involving a shared superordinate system and that the level (not the effect) of felt understanding may be influenced by cohabiting/separate targets. Implications for consolidating peace in Japan–China relations are discussed, which may be relevant to other international relations.