The Anatomy of Apology and Forgiveness: Towards Transformative Apology and Forgiveness

The art of apology: when and how to seek forgiveness.

Not everyone defines error the same way. An often-cited 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report defined error as a "failure of a planned action ... or the use of a wrong plan." Some patients include rudeness or prolonged waiting time when describing medical error. With the literature offering at least 25 definitions of error, how do you decide whether an occurrence rises to the level of an erro...

Apology and forgiveness evolve to resolve failures in cooperative agreements

Making agreements on how to behave has been shown to be an evolutionarily viable strategy in one-shot social dilemmas. However, in many situations agreements aim to establish long-term mutually beneficial interactions. Our analytical and numerical results reveal for the first time under which conditions revenge, apology and forgiveness can evolve and deal with mistakes within ongoing agreements...

Emotional responses to intergroup apology mediate intergroup forgiveness and retribution

A Cross-cultural Examination of the Effects of Apology and Perspective Taking on Forgiveness

Guided by Robinson’s general belief that polite language yields trust from others, the authors examined the likelihood of apology acceptance in two cultures (Japan and the United States).Prior to reading a scenario in which they were to imagine being mistreated by their classmates, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three perspective-taking conditions: (a) recall times when they ...

Neural Correlates of Receiving an Apology and Active Forgiveness: An fMRI Study

Interpersonal conflicts are a common element of many social relationships. One possible process in rebuilding social relationships is the act of apologizing. Behavioral studies have shown that apologies promote forgiveness. However, the neural bases of receiving an apology and forgiveness are still unknown. Hence, the aim of the present fMRI study was to investigate brain processes involved in ...