Conservatives Are More Reluctant to Give and Receive Apologies Than Liberals

Matthew J. Hornsey; Karina Schumann; Paul G. Bain; Sheyla Blumen; Sylvia X. Chen; Ángel Gómez; Roberto González; Yanjun Guan; Emiko Kashima; Nadezhda Lebedeva; Michael J.A. Wohl

doi:10.1177/1948550617691096

Conservatives Are More Reluctant to Give and Receive Apologies Than Liberals

Matthew J. Hornsey, Karina Schumann, Paul G. Bain, Sheyla Blumen, Sylvia X. Chen, Ángel Gómez, Roberto González, Yanjun Guan, Emiko Kashima, Nadezhda Lebedeva, Michael J.A. Wohl

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

18 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

This article examines the proposition that conservatives will be less willing than liberals to apologize and less likely to forgive after receiving an apology. In Study 1, we found evidence for both relationships in a nine-nation survey. In Study 2, participants wrote an open-ended response to a victim of a hypothetical transgression they had committed. More conservative participants were less likely to include apologetic elements in their response. We also tested two underlying mechanisms for the associations: social dominance orientation (SDO) and entity beliefs about human nature. SDO emerged as a stronger and more consistent mediator than entity beliefs. Apologies are theorized to be a rhetorical vehicle for removing power inequities in relationships posttransgression. Consistent with this theorizing, it was those who are relatively high in commitment to equality (i.e., those high in liberal ideology and low in SDO) who are most likely to provide and reward apologies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	827-835
Number of pages	9
Journal	Social Psychological and Personality Science
Volume	8
Issue number	7
Early online date	28 Feb 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617691096
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2017

Funding

1University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 2University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 3Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Perú, Lima, Perú 5The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong 6Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain 7Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 8Durham University, Durham, UK 9LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia 10National Research University, Moscow, Russia 11Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Data were collected using funds from an Australian Research Council grant awarded to Hornsey and Wohl. Translations were partly supported by funds from FONDECYT (1161371), the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (FONDAP 15130009), and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (FONDAP 15110006) awarded to González.

Keywords

apology
conservatism
political ideology
reconciliation
social dominance orientation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Clinical Psychology

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10.1177/1948550617691096

http://dro.dur.ac.uk/21354/

Cite this

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abstract = "This article examines the proposition that conservatives will be less willing than liberals to apologize and less likely to forgive after receiving an apology. In Study 1, we found evidence for both relationships in a nine-nation survey. In Study 2, participants wrote an open-ended response to a victim of a hypothetical transgression they had committed. More conservative participants were less likely to include apologetic elements in their response. We also tested two underlying mechanisms for the associations: social dominance orientation (SDO) and entity beliefs about human nature. SDO emerged as a stronger and more consistent mediator than entity beliefs. Apologies are theorized to be a rhetorical vehicle for removing power inequities in relationships posttransgression. Consistent with this theorizing, it was those who are relatively high in commitment to equality (i.e., those high in liberal ideology and low in SDO) who are most likely to provide and reward apologies.",

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Conservatives Are More Reluctant to Give and Receive Apologies Than Liberals

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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