The moderating role of transgressors' apology on the association between the Dark Triad and victims' post-transgression responses

Abstract

The goal of this research was to examine the association between victims' Dark Triad personality and their social motivation to not forgive (unforgiveness) or forgive transgressors after an interpersonal conflict. The moderating role of transgressors' apology as well as the mediational role of victims' indignation to explain the moderated relation was also tested. Unforgiving responses (operationalized as revenge and avoidance) were predicted to be stronger, and forgiving responses, weaker, among those exhibiting characteristics consistent with the Dark Triad. We also predicted a counterintuitive, but theoretically consistent, stronger positive relation between the Dark Triad and unforgiving responses when victims received an apology. In addition, we predicted that indignation would explain this moderated relation. Two studies using an adult community and an undergraduate sample, respectively, confirmed the moderation hypothesis (Studies 1 and 2) but not the mediated moderation hypothesis (Study 2).