Yamamoto Kyoko, Kimura Masanori, Osaka Miki
Department of Psychology, Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan.
Department of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Kobe College, Nishinomiya, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2021 Aug 26;12:689615. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689615. eCollection 2021.
This study examines the effects of different types of apologies and individual differences in self-monitoring on non-verbal apology behaviors involving a server apologizing to a customer. Apologies divide into sincere apologies that reflect genuine recognition of fault, and instrumental apologies, made for achieving a personal goal such as avoiding punishment or rejection by others. Self-monitoring (public-performing and other-directedness) were also examined. Fifty-three female undergraduate students participated in the experiment. Participants were assigned randomly to either a sincere apology condition or an instrumental apology condition. They watched the film clip of the communication between a customer and server and then role-played how they would apologize if they were the server. Participants' non-verbal behavior during the role-play was videotaped. The results showed an interaction between the apology condition and self-monitoring on non-verbal behaviors. When public-performing was low, gaze avoidance was more likely to occur with a sincere apology than an instrumental apology. There was no difference when the public-performing was high. Facial displays of apology were apparent in the instrumental apology compared to the sincere apology. This tendency became more conspicuous with increased public-performing. Our results indicated that the higher the public-performing, the more participants tried to convey the feeling of apology by combining a direct gaze and facial displays in an instrumental apology. On the other hand, results suggest that lower levels of public-performing elicited less immediacy in offering a sincere apology. Further studies are needed to determine whether these results apply to other conflict resolution situations.
本研究考察了不同类型的道歉以及自我监控方面的个体差异对涉及服务员向顾客道歉的非言语道歉行为的影响。道歉分为反映对过错真诚认知的真诚道歉和为实现个人目标（如避免他人惩罚或拒绝）而做出的工具性道歉。同时也考察了自我监控（在公众场合的表现和关注他人）。五十三名本科女生参与了该实验。参与者被随机分配到真诚道歉组或工具性道歉组。她们观看了一段顾客与服务员交流的视频片段，然后角色扮演如果自己是服务员会如何道歉。角色扮演过程中参与者的非言语行为被录像。结果显示道歉类型和自我监控在非言语行为上存在交互作用。当在公众场合的表现较低时，真诚道歉比工具性道歉更可能出现回避目光的情况。当在公众场合的表现较高时则没有差异。与真诚道歉相比，工具性道歉中明显有更多道歉的面部表情。随着在公众场合表现的增加，这种趋势变得更加明显。我们的结果表明，在工具性道歉中，在公众场合的表现越高，参与者越试图通过直视和面部表情来传达歉意。另一方面，结果表明在公众场合表现较低时，真诚道歉的即时性较低。需要进一步研究来确定这些结果是否适用于其他冲突解决情境。
