On the Acceptance of Apologies

An apology is a strong and cheap device to restore social or economic relationships thathave been disturbed. In a laboratory experiment we find that harmdoers use apologies inparticular if they fear punishment and when their intentions cannot be easily inferred. Afteroffenses with ambiguous intentionality apologizers are punished less often than nonapologizers.Victims expect an apology and punish if they do not receive one. An apologyonly affects the event of punishment but not the level of punishment. An apology does nothelp at all after clearly intentionally committed offenses. On the contrary, after such offensesharmdoers do better not to apologize since sending an apology in this situation stronglyincreases punishment compared to remaining silent.