Sorry, not sorry: apologies and denials in the #MeToo movement

The #MeToo-movement publically confronts alleged perpetrators of sexual misconduct with their transgressions. In return, the accused often struggle with the question of how to reply. What can research about trust and forgiveness teach us about the do’s and don’ts of their responses

Verontschuldigingen in het kader van #MeToo: een psychologische analyse

De #metoo-beweging confronteert vermeende daders publiekelijk met hun vermeende wangedrag. Beschuldigden worstelen met de vraag hoe op zulke beschuldigingen te reageren. Wat kan sociaalpsychologisch onderzoek over vertrouwen en vergiffenis ons leren over de do’s en don’ts van hun reacties

The underlying motives of different mixed-motive games

Haesevoets, Reinders Folmer, and Van Hiel (2015) have shown limited consistency of people’s behaviour across various mixed-motive games. According to these authors, the modest relationships among these games call into question the general idea that all mixedmotive games render the conflict between selfish interests and concern for others equally salient. Thielmann, Böhm, and Hilbig (2015), however, argued that these findings can be explained in terms of the motivational differences that underlie the games. In this article, we demonstrate that Thielmann et al.’s descriptive model of the different motives underlying selfish and prosocial choices cannot be straightforwardly applied to the empirical data at hand. Analogous to our previous article, we again stress the need for further empirical research investigating the underlying motivational basis of each mixed-motive game. Keywords: mixed-motive games, motivational basis, selfish choice, prosocial choic

Is trust for sale? The effectiveness of financial compensation for repairing competence-versus integrity-based trust violations

Despite the popularity of financial compensation as a means for addressing trust violations, the question whether (more) money can indeed buy trust back remains largely unexplored. In the present research, we focus on the role of violation type and compensation size. The results of a scenario study and a laboratory experiment show that financial compensation can effectively promote the restoration of trust for transgressions that indicate a lack of competence. Conversely, for transgressions which signal a lack of integrity, financial compensation is not an effective tool to repair trust. Moreover, our findings indicate that for both violation types, overcompensation has no positive effects on top of the impact of equal compensation. These findings therefore show that when it comes to trust, money cannot buy everything

More Money, More Trust? Target and Observer Differences in the Effectiveness of Financial Overcompensation to Restore Trust.

Recent research revealed that despite its financial costs, overcompensation is not more effective to restore trust in the perpetrator than equal compensation. In a lab experiment (N = 115), we compared the effects of these compensation sizes for both targets of the compensation and noninvolved observers. It was revealed that overcompensation did not yield superior outcomes than equal compensation. Specifically, for targets overcompensation resulted in lower levels of trust than equal compensation, while for observers equal compensation and overcompensation resulted in similar levels of trust. This finding suggests that overcompensation is not a cost-effective trust repair strategy, neither for the targets nor for third party observers. Other implications are discussed as well

Situational Voluntary Compliance: Adherence to COVID-19 Social Distancing Guidelines in the 2020 Local Outbreak in Beijing

To mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic many countries have adopted mandatory social distancing measures, but in China, social distancing was implemented only as an advisory guideline. This article seeks to understand whether, and why Chinese citizens adhered to such social distancing advice. The data, derived from a survey in the 2020 local outbreak in Beijing, show that voluntary compliance was hardly influ-enced by motivational predictors, but was almost exclusively dependent on a single, key situational predictor, namely people’s practical capacity to follow social distancing. These findings demonstrate that the emphasis on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in existing compliance research does not do justice to the situational nature of voluntary compliance observed within this particular context. We discuss theoretical implications of these findings for the compliance literature. Moreover, we use these findings to provide (tentative) insight into the compliance challenges that China was facing during the course of the pandemic, and to speculate about ways in which compliance may be enhanced during future pandemic outbreaks in China.</p

Privaatrecht in het laboratorium – verslag van acht rechtspsychologische experimenten

Onderzoek naar de praktische werking van privaatrecht kanbijdragen aan onze kennis over de rechtswerkelijkheid en is nuttig om veronderstellingen van beleidsmakers, rechters en academici op houdbaarheid te toetsen. Een van de manieren om de sociale werkelijkheid te bestuderen, is rechtspsychologisch experimenteel onderzoek. Kan dergelijk onderzoek ook een bijdrage leveren aande bestudering van ons privaatrecht? Die vraag staat centraal in dit boek.In het boek komen onderzoeksvragen aan de orde als: accepteren slachtoffers eerder een schikkingsvoorstel als dit met excuses gepaard gaat? Vertekent juridisch irrelevante informatie hetbeslissingsproces van rechters? Zijn juristen anders als het gaat om tekstinterpretatie? Is de dreiging van aansprakelijkheid net zo afschrikwekkend als die van strafrecht? Leiden begrijpelijkere contractvoorwaarden tot andere beslissingen?In dit boek worden antwoorden gezocht op deze en andere vragen.Dat gebeurt door middel van rechtspsychologisch experimenteel onderzoek. De auteurs voerden allen zelf een experimenteel onderzoek uit. Zij plaatsen de experimentele bevindingen in eenjuridisch kader en reflecteren op de bruikbaarheid van experimentenvoor de ontwikkeling van het privaatrecht. Daarmee toont dit boek een belangrijk nieuw perspectief op het Nederlandse privaatrecht.Coherent privaatrech

Evaluating social investment in disability policy

Disability policy in European countries is displaying a shift towards social investment: increasing human capital and access to the labour market. The reasoning that underlies this transition is that disabled persons would benefit from mainstream employment, but are impeded in traditional policy by deficiencies in labour supply and demand. However, the shift towards more activating policies in many countries is accompanied by a decline in social protection. It is unclear whether social investment may effectively promote the employment chances of disabled persons within this context. The present research examines this question through a quantitative, cross-sectional, multilevel analysis on microdata from 22 EU countries. Our findings suggest greater activation to predict lower employment chances, while reducing passive support shows mixed effects. Conversely, measures for facilitation in daily life predict greater employment chances, as do measures for sheltered work. These findings raise questions over the value of social investment for disabled persons—and underline the need to overcome broader barriers in the labour market and in society