When and Why Intellectual Humility Promotes Higher-Quality Apologies for Interpersonal Transgressions

Apologies are powerful predictors of reconciliation, yet transgressors often withhold apologies altogether or offer low-quality apologies. We investigated whether intellectual humility predicts how and why people apologize. Results indicated that intellectual humility predicts higher quality apologies through the mechanisms of greater empathic effort and lower pseudo self-forgiveness, particularly among men.