Did I Offend You or Did It? Agency Assignment in Interpersonal Apology. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Did I Offend You or Did It? Agency Assignment in Interpersonal Apology. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)
- Main Title:
- Did I Offend You or Did It? Agency Assignment in Interpersonal Apology
- Authors:
- Wang, Yiwei
McGlone, Matthew S. - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: When apologizing to victims of transgressions, people may assign the agency for harm to themselves ("I'm sorry I offended you"), to the act ("I'm sorry it offended you"), or omit agency altogether ("I'm sorry you were offended"). They also may acknowledge or question the victim's harm by the choice of conjunction used to introduce an explanatory subordinate clause ("I'm sorry that you were offended" vs. "I'm sorry if you were offended"). Participants (n = 1, 118) were randomly assigned to read 1 of 12 versions of a scenario wherein someone commits a transgression (e.g., breaks a promise) and then apologizes. Versions varied on degree of offense (minor or major), apology agency assignment (transgressor, transgression, or omitted), and conjunction choice ("that" or "if"). Results indicated that apologies assigning agency to the transgressor or transgression invited more favorable perceptions of the transgressor than those omitting agency. However, there was no reliable main effect nor interaction involving subordinating conjunction choice. Our findings demonstrate the impact of strategic word choice in apology on victims' perceptions of transgressors.
- Is Part Of:
- Discourse processes. Volume 57:Issue 1(2020)
- Journal:
- Discourse processes
- Issue:
- Volume 57:Issue 1(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 57, Issue 1 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 57
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0057-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 66
- Page End:
- 80
- Publication Date:
- 2020-01-02
- Subjects:
- Discourse analysis -- Periodicals
401.41 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t775653637~tab=issueslist ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hdsp20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://firstsearch.oclc.org ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/0163853X.2019.1576471 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0163-853X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3595.860000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 12498.xml