Embodied remorse: Physical displays of remorse increase positive responses to public apologies, but have negligible effects on forgiveness

Abstract

Public apologies struggle to communicate genuineness. Previous studies have shown that, in response to public apologies, perceptions of remorse and levels of forgiveness are often low, while skepticism about motive is high. Furthermore, attempts to reduce mistrust of public apologies by manipulating the verbal component of the message have had limited success. Across 6 studies (combined N 3,818), we examined whether people respond more positively to public apologies if the apologies are accompanied by nonverbal demonstrations of remorse: operationalized as kneeling (Studies 1 and 6) and crying (Studies 2-5). Overall, embodied remorse had small-to-medium effects on perceived remorse, and thro..