How Different Apology Components Drive Trust Repair: The Moderating Effect of Social Value Orientation

Abstract

Trust is commonly recognized as a significant part in social life. Exploring how to repair violated trust is necessary because trust transgressions occur frequently. Apologizing is one of the methods commonly used to repair trust. Rather than simply regarding it as a dichotomous phenomenon in most extant researches, additional details on the effect mechanisms of apology components for trust repair must be investigated. Thus this study explores how three apology components drive trust repair through forgiveness, considering the moderating effect of social value orientation. Forgiveness mediates the effect of compensation, empathy, and acknowledgment on trust repair, and that prosocials react more positively to the effect of acknowledgment on trust repair in forgiveness than proselfs. This study can contribute to promoting understanding on how apology really works and how to apology in accordance with people’s tendencies.

Keywords：Apology components, Forgiveness, Social value orientation, Trust repair