Are costly apologies universally perceived as being sincere?

Ohtsubo, Yohsuke; Watanabe, Esuka; Kim, Jiyoon; Kulas, John T.; Muluk, Hamdi; Nazar, Gabriela; Wang, Feixue; Zhang, Jingyu

doi:10.1556/jep.10.2012.4.3

Cited by 41 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One potentially productive avenue would be manipulating the real, or even perceived, cost of intergroup apologies for the apologizing group. Previous research has shown that costly apologies are more effective at eliciting forgiveness (Ohtsubo & Watanabe, 2009) across multiple cultures (Ohtsubo et al, 2012).…”

Section: Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ironic impact of intergroup apologies on intergroup attitudes: Understanding the role of perceived power for post‐apology outgroup attitudes

Alt

Park

Schug

2018

Asian J of Social Psycho

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ironic impact of intergroup apologies on intergroup attitudes: Understanding the role of perceived power for post‐apology outgroup attitudes

Alt

Park

Schug

2018

Asian J of Social Psycho

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, there is an alternative explanation: compensation is effective because it allows the victim to recoup his/her losses, and equity is restored (Darley & Pittman, 2003). Nonetheless, Ohtsubo and Watanabe (2009, Studies 2 and 3) showed that apology cost that was unilaterally incurred by the perpetrator and would not be transferred to the victim (e.g., the perpetrator cancelling an important meeting) was also effective (see Ohtsubo et al, 2012, for replications in seven countries). Thus, without taking their signaling function into account, the effectiveness of costly forms of reparative acts cannot be fully understood.…”

Section: Relationship Value Exploitation Risk and Costly Apologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship value promotes costly apology-making: testing the valuable relationships hypothesis from the perpetrator's perspective

Ohtsubo

Yagi

2015

Evolution and Human Behavior

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The valuable relationships hypothesis posits that people are inclined to reconcile with their valuable-relationship partners. Focusing on a particular type of credible conciliatory signal (i.e., costly apology), the present study tested this hypothesis from the perpetrator's perspective. In studies 1 and 2, after imagining that they had committed an interpersonal transgression against one of their real friends, participants (N = 529 and 311 in studies 1 and 2, respectively) rated their willingness to incur a cost in order to apologize to the victim. Apology cost was operationalized as "canceling plans to make an apology as soon as possible" in study 1, and as "offering compensation" in study 2. The results showed that the instrumentality of the partner to achieving the participants' goals would increase their willingness to make a costly apology, after controlling for the participants' sex, version of the transgression scenario, closeness to the victim, and expected forgiveness of the victim. To ensure the external validity of this finding, studies 3 and 4 asked participants to recall one of their interpersonal transgression experiences, and to report whether they had offered compensation for it (N = 190 and 224 in studies 3 and 4, respectively). Study 3 confirmed the hypothesis, while study 4 did not directly support it. However, study 4 did show that participants were more willing to reconcile with their valuable partners. Taken together, these results indicate that the valuable relationships hypothesis applies not only to victims, but also to their perpetrators as well.

show abstract

“…Based on costly signaling theory, receivers perceive costlier signals to be more credible and reliable (Gintis et al., 2001; Roberts, 1998; Smith & Bird, 2000; Sosis, 2000; Zahavi, 1977). Previous studies found when the wrongdoer was willing to bear more cost to apologize or compensate, the victim was more likely to feel their sincerity (Eaton, Struthers, & Santelli, 2006; Gauché & Mullet, 2005; Ohtsubo & Watanabe, 2009; Ohtsubo et al., 2012). It is possible that people consider self-punishment as a sincere expression of remorse due to the cost and forgive the wrongdoer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Self-Punishment Promotes Forgiveness in the Direct and Indirect Reciprocity Contexts

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most previous studies regarding self-punishment have focused on the correlation between moral emotion and self-punishment. Only a few studies have attempted to understand self-punishment from the perspective of seeking forgiveness, and no study has yet directly tested whether wrongdoers' self-punishment promotes others to forgive the wrongdoers. In three studies, the participants judged the wrongdoers' self-punishment behaviors following an unfair allocation and reported the extent to which they forgave the wrongdoers. The results demonstrated that self-punishment did promote forgiveness in both the direct (Studies 1 and 2) and indirect reciprocity (Study 3) contexts. Consistent with costly signaling theory, the costlier the self-punishment was, the stronger the effect it had on forgiveness. Moreover, communicative self-punishment had a better effect than silent self-punishment when the cost was relatively high in the direct-reciprocity studies. These findings can guide us regarding how to address a damaged relationship via self-punishment when compensation is not feasible or acceptable.

show abstract

Are costly apologies universally perceived as being sincere?

Abstract: Are costly apologies universally perceived as being sincere? : A test of the costly apology-perceived sincerity relationship in seven countries.

Cited by 41 publications

References 40 publications

The ironic impact of intergroup apologies on intergroup attitudes: Understanding the role of perceived power for post‐apology outgroup attitudes

The ironic impact of intergroup apologies on intergroup attitudes: Understanding the role of perceived power for post‐apology outgroup attitudes

Relationship value promotes costly apology-making: testing the valuable relationships hypothesis from the perpetrator's perspective

Self-Punishment Promotes Forgiveness in the Direct and Indirect Reciprocity Contexts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About