University of Texas at Austin.
J Soc Psychol. 2020 Sep 2;160(5):675-687. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2020.1732857. Epub 2020 Feb 23.
Prior research has shown that greater willingness to apologize for an offense is prompted by greater guilt but lesser shame. Yet little work examined whether apologies indeed resolve moral emotions. This study investigated how the absence of apology psychologically affects harm-doers when they recall a past offense. Undergraduates ( = 284) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions wherein they recalled a past incident in which they hurt, offended, angered, or had some other negative effect on another person. Harm-doers who intended but failed to apologize reported greater PFQ-2 state guilt and shame, compared to others who refused to apologize or whose apologies were rejected. However, similar results were not found for ESS state shame. Results suggest that failing to apologize may impede transgressors from relieving moral emotional burdens, but only for those who intended to apologize.
先前的研究表明，更大的道歉意愿是由更大的内疚感和更小的羞耻感引起的。然而，很少有研究探讨道歉是否真的能化解道德情感。本研究调查了当伤害者回忆过去的冒犯行为时，道歉的缺失会如何在心理上影响他们。被试为本科生（n=284），他们被随机分配到四个实验条件中的一个，回忆过去他们伤害、冒犯、激怒或对他人产生其他负面影响的事件。与那些拒绝道歉或道歉被拒绝的人相比，那些有道歉意愿但未能道歉的伤害者报告说，PFQ-2 状态下的内疚感和羞耻感更强烈。然而，对于 ESS 状态下的羞耻感，并没有发现类似的结果。研究结果表明，未能道歉可能会阻碍冒犯者减轻道德情感负担，但这只适用于那些有道歉意愿的人。
