All apologies: on the willingness of perpetrators to apologize

Abstract

Conflict and transgressions are an inevitable part of living and working in groups. After a transgression there is often a strong need for the conflicting parties to reconcile and to restore trust. An apology is one of the most common ways for a perpetrator to initiate the reconciliation process. Indeed, numerous studies have shown the positive effects of an apology on the reconciliation process. Contrary to the large body of research on the effects of an apology on a victim, almost no research has investigated when perpetrators are actually willing to offer such an apology. Given that an apology can only elicit its positive effects on reconciliation when a perpetrator is willing to offer one, it is imperative to understand when perpetrators are willing to do so.
This dissertation is the first to systematically investigate the situational and personality determinants of a perpetrator’s willingness to apologize. In this dissertation, I investigate how victims can influence the willingness of perpetrators to apologize. I show how different types of transgressions influence the both the willingness to apologize and the congruence between a perpetrator’s willingness to apologize and a victim’s desire to receive an apology. I also focus on how the type of relationship between victim and perpetrator influences the willingness to apologize. Finally, in this dissertation, I show how perpetrators often biased towards overestimating the aversiveness of apologizing can have an important effect on their willingness to apologize.

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