To pay or to apologize? On the psychology of dealing with unfair offers in a dictator game

Prior research has largely failed to focus on how transgressors can promote trust when having made unfair offers in bargaining I investigated in the context of receiving an unfair offer in a dictator game when financial compensations and when apologies are most effective in motivating trust behavior by the violated party I hypothesized that when losses were allocated the violated party would be motivated to show more trust behavior towards the transgressor when a financial compensation (resulting again in equal final out comes) relative to an apology was delivered whereas when gains were allocated apologies would be more effective in promoting trust behavior than a financial compensation Results from a laboratory study Indeed supported this prediction as such demonstrating the important e of how allocation decisions are framed (i e loss or gain) in testing the effectiveness of trust repair strategies (financial compensations vs apologies) (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved