Apology Cost Is More Strongly Associated With Perceived Sincerity Than Forgiveness

The finding, in one line

“We failed to replicate the aforementioned pattern.”

Abstract

This study aimed at replicating a previously reported pattern: costly apologies are perceived as more sincere than non-costly apologies even when the transgression was unintentional, while costly apologies do not foster forgiveness more than non-costly apologies when the transgression was unintentional. We conducted a vignette study with a 2 (apology cost: costly vs. non-costly) × 3 (intention: no vs. ambiguous vs. malicious intention) between-participants factorial design. We failed to replicate the aforementioned pattern. Instead, we found that costly apologies promote not only perceived sin

Abstract by Yohsuke Ohtsubo; Miyu Higuchi, Letters on Evolutionary Behavioral Science (2022) — licensed CC BY 4.0.

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