Abstract
During a national reckoning against sexual violence, the public read or heard dozens of apologies offered by prominent public figures in response to allegations of sexual misconduct. This study examined people’s reactions to these apologies, with a focus on whether their implicit theories of personality—their beliefs about whether personality is changeable—influenced their evaluations of the apologies and the men who issued them. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 720) and real apologies offered during the #MeToo movement, it was found that, relative to people holding more of an entity (i.e., fixed) view of personality, those holding more of an incremental (i.e., malleable) view evaluated the apologies and apologizers more favorably, held more positive general attitudes toward this recent wave of apologies for misconduct, and were more likely to indicate that redemption was possible for the accused men. These findings suggest that people who hold more of an incremental theory of personality might interpret an apology as a meaningful signal that a person is ready and willing to change their ways and work toward self-improvement.
Highlights
Amidst the international #MeToo movement against sexual violence that spread virally in 2017, people’s newsfeeds were populated with a continuous stream of sexual misconduct allegations issued against high-profile public figures
Because this study used a within-subjects design wherein participants reacted to multiple public apologies, random intercept models were first conducted to calculate intraclass correlations (ICCs) for each of the six dependent variables [22]
Public apologies have become a daily occurrence, with the #MeToo movement representing a important context in which the world witnessed a deluge of apologies offered by prominent figures
Summary
Amidst the international #MeToo movement against sexual violence that spread virally in 2017, people’s newsfeeds were populated with a continuous stream of sexual misconduct allegations issued against high-profile public figures. The public’s reaction to these apologies likely depended on a variety of factors, including characteristics of the person reacting to the apology (i.e., the target). One potentially important characteristic is the target’s implicit theory of personality—their belief about whether or not personality can change [1, 2]. People’s beliefs regarding the malleability of personality fall somewhere along a spectrum, ranging from an entity theory at one end to an incremental theory at the other [1]. Whereas people who hold more of an entity theory of personality tend to regard traits as fixed and unchangeable, those who hold more of an incremental theory tend to believe that traits are malleable, and that people have the capacity to change even their most basic qualities
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