The Effects Of Apology On Trust Recovery

Apology is one of the most commonly used repair strategies when the interpersonal trust isviolated. Whether apology, which we were taught to use from an early age, is really effective inthe process of trust recovery both for adults and children? Studies in adults have found thatapology was effective in reparing trust belief, to some extent. But there were inconsistent resultsin reparing trust behavior. If apology has effects on trust recovery, how does it work? Are thereany age differences in how apology effect trust recovery?The present study recruited9and11years old children, and adults to participate in this study.We used trust game to examine the effects of apology. In addition, we had set up a non-violationgroup as the control group, in which the subjects didn’t experience trust violation. The study alsoexamine the positive emotion, negative emotion and trustworthy characters evaluation toinvestgate the mechanism of apology. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Apology can repair trust behavior and trust belief, and there are age differences in the repaireffects. For the trust behavior, the repair effects of9-year-old children and adults are better than11-year-old. For the trust belief, apology is effective for9-year-old children and adults, butineffective for11-year-old children.(2) Neither the trust behavior nor the trust belief can be repaired by apology to the level ofnon-violation group.(3) There are age differences in the mechanisms of how apology effect on trust recoverythrough emotion. For9years old children, apology can infulence trust behavior through positiveemotion, it can also influence emotion through trust belief, and then work on trust behavior. For11years old children, apology can influence trust behavior directly. And for adults, apology caninfulence trust behavior through positive emotion, or influence positive emotion through trustbelief, and then work on trust behavior.(4) There are age differences in the mechanisms of how apology effect on trust recoverythrough trustworthiness evaluation. For9years old children, apology can infulence trust behavior through trustworthiness evaluation, it can also influence trustworthiness evaluationthrough trust belief, and then work on trust behavior. For11years old children and adults,apology can’t influence trust behavior through trustworthiness evaluation.