Remorse, Confession, Group Identity, and Expectancies About Repeating a Transgression

Abstract

Within impression management and attribution research, confession presents a paradox. Rather than trying to reduce blame, confessors accept responsibility for the transgression. Yet confession is an effective strategy for positive impression formation. In this article, the explanation for these benefits focuses on other's utilitarian concerns regarding future expectations of negative behavior by the transgressor. In 3 studies, level of remorse, harm, personal relevance, and group status are examined in situations of transgression. Remorse had the largest overall multivariate effect on the measures of forgiveness. Most affected by level of remorse was the perceived stability of the cause of transgressor's actions, which was a major antecedent of expectancies regarding future negative acts. It appears that an effective confession must include remorse to positively affect these future expectancies.

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