Previous research suggests that children gradually understand the mitigating effects of apology on damage to a transgressor's reputation. However, little is known about young children's insights into the central emotional implications of apology. In two studies, children ages 4-9 heard stories about moral transgressions in which the wrongdoers either did or did not apologize. In Study 1, childr...

One of the frequently used strategies in crisis management, i.e. crisis communication used by organizations affected by crisis is public apology for the crisis. Usually it is lightly considered as a strategy which automatically gives results and reduces the effects of crisis, which is far from true. The effectiveness of public apology depends on an entire series of factors such as the nature of...

BACKGROUND Disclosing medical errors is considered necessary by patients, ethicists, and health care professionals. Literature insists on the framing of this disclosure and describes the apology as appropriate and necessary. However, this policy seems difficult to put into practice. Few works have explored the function and meaning of the apology. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to explore...

State apology laws offer a separate avenue from traditional damages-centric tort reforms to address medical malpractice liability. These laws facilitate apologies from physicians by excluding statements of apology from malpractice trials. Prior research suggests that apologies may assuage the anger of patients, decrease the number of claims filed, and lower settlement amounts. Using a unique da...

Experimental studies of children’s responses to apologies often present participants with hypothetical scenarios. This article reports on an experimental study of children’s reactions to experiencing an actual disappointment and subsequent apology. Participants (ages four to seven) were told that another child was supposed to share some attractive stickers with them. In the two primary conditio...

Despite the increased incidence of intergroup apology in public life, very little empirical attention has been paid to the questions of whether intergroup apologies work and if so, why. In a series of experiments, Australians read scenarios in which Australian interests had been harmed by an outgroup. Participants were then told that the outgroup had either apologized or had not apologized for ...

Although studies have emphasized the multiple components of anger, little is known about the physiological and psychological mechanisms of the approach motivational component and the negative emotional component of anger. In the present study, participants wrote brief opinions about social problems (e.g., tuition hikes) and received a handwritten, insulting comment about their composition from ...

An apology is a strong and cheap device to restore social or economic relationships that have been disturbed. In a laboratory experiment in which apologies emerge endogenously, we find that harmdoers use apologies in particular if they fear punishment and if their intentions cannot be easily inferred. After offenses with ambiguous intention apologizers are punished less often than non-apologize...

Public apologies are one of the most prominent examples of migration of speech acts from the private to the public sphere and now commonly feature in a wide range of public and media settings. Judging by the last two decades, the act of public apology is clearly in the process of social change, although perhaps more particularly in English-speaking cultures. The paper inscribes itself in a grow...