Use Of Excuses Research Articles

Who can afford to blame? Sender effects in blame-shifting crisis communications

PurposeWhen companies face a crisis, they sometimes deliver blame-shifting communications, trying to shift blame onto another actor to protect their reputation. While previous research has considered how different features of the message affect its persuasiveness, little is known about whether specific senders can blame more effectively. This paper aims to contribute to research in this domain through an investigation of the sender’s social perception as a critical moderator to the persuasiveness of blame shifting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct four between-subjects scenario experiments to test the research hypotheses. In each experiment, participants are presented with a realistic crisis scenario and the crisis communications delivered by the company. The authors assess the extent to which perceptions of the sender influence the message’s ability to reduce negative word-of-mouth intentions and to increase purchase intentions.FindingsThe authors show that blame shifting is more likely to be effective when deployed by senders that are small (Study 1) or have a positive CSR track record (Study 2). Furthermore, The authors find that even large senders can successfully deploy blame shifting if they can benefit from being known for their CSR programs (Study 3). Finally, the authors show that the effect of blame shifting depends on the receiver’s level of concern about the crisis: stakeholders significantly concerned by the crisis reject blame-shifting communications (Study 4).Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should examine the impact of information about brand competence on blame-shifting effectiveness. Further research is also needed to explore sender effects for other defensive crisis communication strategies such as denial or the use of excuses or justifications.Practical implicationsThe study offers critical information for marketers considering the use of defensive crisis communications strategies such as blame shifting.Originality/valueThe study extends the understanding of how sender effects influence blame-shifting communications. The analysis allows us to clarify why this strategy is effective for certain senders and certain receivers while, for others, it tends to backfire. Blame shifting backfires for large senders unless they can boast a strong CSR record.

Patient accounts for nonadherence: A critical window into the patient experience

ObjectivesThis paper explores patient use of excuses to better understand the patient experience during clinical interactions. MethodsA content analysis of 32 residents treating 99 different patients was used to reveal accounts of nonadherence. Using grounded theory, these accounts were coded into types and then reduced using a Q-sort. ResultsAnalysis revealed 163 accounts of nonadherence. When questioned about their adherence to treatment, 68% of patients offered at least one account for nonadherence during the visit. These accounts were coded into fourteen types and then the Q-sort identified four types of accounts: healthcare system failures, treatment failure, situational exigencies, and self-directed. Of the accounts offered, 7% of the patients provided 6 or more accounts and 25% provided between 3 and 5 accounts. ConclusionsThe examination of excuses provides a unique way to gain insight into how patients communicate with their physicians. Patient accounts ranged from those where patients indicated adherence was within their control (self-directed) and accounts outside their control (healthcare system failure, treatment failure, and situational exigency). Practice implicationsThe types of accounts of nonadherence patients could provide doctors insight into the patient experience. Recognizing these types could allow opportunities for doctors to develop communication strategies for encouraging patient adherence.

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

I Have Nothing Against Them, But…

We study the use of excuses to justify socially stigmatized actions, such as opposing minority groups. Rationales to oppose minorities change some people’s private opinions, leading them to take anti-minority actions even if they are not prejudiced against minorities. When these rationales become common knowledge, prejudiced people who are not persuaded by the rationale can pool with unprejudiced people who are persuaded. This decreases the stigma associated with anti-minority expression, increasing public opposition to minority groups. We examine this mechanism through several large-scale experiments in the context of anti-immigrant behavior in the United States. In the first main experiment, participants learn about a study claiming that immigrants increase crime rates and then choose whether to authorize a publicly observable donation to an anti-immigrant organization. Informing participants that others will know that they learned about the study substantially increases donation rates. In the second main experiment, participants learn that a previous respondent authorized a donation to an anti-immigrant organization and then make an inference about the respondent’s motivations. Participants who are informed that the respondent learned about the study prior to authorizing the donation see the respondent as less intolerant and more easily persuadable.

Cybersecurity Breach and Crisis Response: An Analysis of Organizations’ Official Statements in the United States and South Korea

Cybersecurity breaches have rapidly become a high-impact crisis for many corporations. Thus, it is critically important for corporations to know how to protect their reputation through effective crisis communication. Considering the scarcity of empirical research on cybersecurity breaches in crisis communication, the current study attempts to fill this research gap. This study compared 108 official statements issued by organizations in the United States and South Korea when cybersecurity breaches threatened the reputations of various corporations. The characteristics of an apology (responsibility admittance, sympathetic expression, reassurance, compensation) and other features of crisis response (use of excuses, functions of apology, and organizational representation) were examined. This study found that the features of the official statements differed by cultural dimension (individualism vs. collectivism, small vs. large power distance) and by communication style (low-context vs. high-context communication).

The Invitations of Irresponsibility: Utilizing Excuses in Counselling with Men Who Have Been Abusive

Therapeutic intervention with men who have abused others has evolved from early models that stressed confrontation and coercion toward newer approaches emphasizing engagement and collaboration. A collateral development has been a re-thinking of the once inviolable principle that offenders must “take responsibility” before they can be expected to change. In this paper, I hope to contribute to this ongoing evolution by considering how offenders' use of excuses, normally seen as an impediment to change, can be utilized in a collaborative way. I review research that helps us better appreciate the pro-social value of excuse-making and show how I have used a response-based framework in trying to accept the invitations offered by clients when they engage in blaming, problem talk, and other forms of externalizing responsibility. In learning to accept the invitations of irresponsibility, we can further contribute to the movement away from treating clients as objects of therapeutic intervention toward negotiating a...

Überlegungen zur ironischen Verwendung von Entschuldigungen (dargestellt an russischen und tschechischen literarischen Beispielen)

The ironic use of excuses is in the focus of the present paper. An excuse, when used ironically, no longer works as an excuse, the speaker expresses something different. But what exactly does the speaker express? The present paper tries to answer this question by first describing the non-ironic use of excuses and then pointing out, how irony changes the pragmatic function of the excuse. It can be shown for a Russian and a Czech literary corpus, that an ironically used excuse strengthens an insult or expresses a reproach. The paper also describes on which level of the speech act the irony can be found (on the illocutionary or on the propositional level).

Domestic Violence Presentation Raises Awareness in Student Reporters' Stories

Approximately 1.5 million women are abused annually.1 Considering newspapers' influence, it is important to examine the effects of awareness on violence coverage. This study specifically examined the effects of awareness on article content of student journalists.Raising media awareness is done to bring reporting practices closer to social norms.2 Few sources of journalistically focused information are available about domestic violence, the exception including the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma's Tips and Tools: A Guide for Journalists: Domestic Violence.3Scholars have studied journalistic representations of domestic violence, examining coverage that a) justifies violence, b) positively portrays the perpetrator, c) blames victims, d) uses inadequate sources and e) portrays violence as an isolated event. Meyers addresses journalism practices and violence against women. She writes that journalists cannot reflect society and be unaccountable for its ills when news lacks neutrality. She also argues that excusing abuse leads to victim blame by default.4 Her study found coverage using stereotypes and myths reinforces the idea of male supremacy.5Johnson found perpetrator and action justification her examination of two San Francisco newspapers.6 Bullock and Cubert studied domestic violence fatality coverage Washington state newspapers 1998. They examined the accuracy of how victims' experiences were reflected, violence as a social issue and patterns of portrayal.7 The author's analysis, focused on professional journalists, indicated results similar to the current study.8 Hall's study9 examined coverage of victims, perpetrators and frames used 2,200 stories from 35 U.S. newspapers. She found In the attempt to be balanced, reporters seem to inadvertently report misconceptions about domestic violence.10 Examining frames, Hall found 48.5 percent of the stories were framed for the greater good of society, 42.3 percent framed violence as isolated events and 9.5 percent framed it as part of relationships.The portrayals of violence as an isolated event was examined by The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence.11 The group report found that in all but one case, the murders were treated as unpredictable, although investigation eight of 12 cases revealed warning signs.12 Witness reaction focused on disbelief-a spontaneous reaction. Dependence on these sources resulted reporting violence as a problem of individual breakdown, not a social problem.13Johnson asked if inadequate sources perpetuate misconceptions. She also found police made statements affecting the perception of violence.It is inconceivable that little effort was made to consult with experts. Instead, reporters asked police to explain domestic violence. The result was dangerous, and misleading information was repeated media reports.14MethodThis study asks whether increasing reporters' awareness would result stories representing domestic violence more objectively.RQ1:Does raising awareness decrease the use of excuses for the perpetrator?RQ2:Does raising awareness decrease victim-blaming language?RQ3:Does raising awareness increase inclusion of information that presents domestic violence as an ongoing social issue and not an isolated event?RQ4:Does raising awareness impact sources used?RQ5:Does raising awareness increase inclusion of information beneficial to the victim?Fifty-six students undergraduate news and feature writing courses at a Midwestern university participated. A test group of 26 students was exposed to a 50-minute presentation by an advocate; a control group was unexposed. Each session included a pre-tested script with statistics and facts on domestic violence, discussion of media misrepresentation and suggestions for socially responsible coverage. The sessions were adapted from advocate suggestions: Hall's thesis, The framing of domestic violence newspapers;15 Johnson's Media guidelines for coverage of sexual assault and domestic violence;16 and the RICADVs Domestic violence: A handbook for journalists. …

Religiosity and Drug Use Among Inmates in Boot Camp

SUMMARY The present investigation is one of the first theoretical studies of young persons entering boot camp. The sample in the present study consists of 326 males, aged 15 to 24 years, in the only boot camp in Arkansas. The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of religiosity within a hypothesized theo retical model with reciprocal relationships of drug use among boot camp in mates. This model is tested with two-stage least squares regression, and all hypothesized relationships, with two exceptions, are supported. The findings show that attachment to caregivers is inversely related to associations with peers who engage in illicit behavior, whereas being abused by an adult is positively related to these associations. These associations have inverse reciprocal relationships with religiosity and secular beliefs, and are positively related to use of excuses for illicit acts, which are positively related to drug use. Drug use in creases with advances in age and among white persons (versus persons of color), and use of drugs has positive reciprocal relationships with selling illicit substances and carrying a gun. Conceptual and practice implications of the study are discussed.

Violent Youths in Southern Public Schools in America

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study of 600 adolescents from three Southern public schools in the United States was to examine the differential effects of elements of social control and social learning theories on violence according to age groups (13 to 15 and 16 to 18 years of age). As hypothesized, developmental (differences were found that have implications for theory and intervention. Attachments to caregivers and self-esteem were significantly related to violence only among young adolescents. Sexual and physical abuse, beliefs, religiosity, and feelings of frustration and alienation, and use of excuses were predictive of violence irrespective of age. On the other hand, deviant peer associations, modeling, drug use, carrying a weapon, and gang membership was predictive of violent deeds only among older adolescents. Conceptual and practice implications of these findings are discussed.

Developmental differences in theories of sexual behavior among rural adolescents residing in AFDC families

This was a study of 414 adolescents who resided with rural families on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 10 counties located in Arkansas. The purpose of the study was to determine what demographic and theoretical factors from control, strain, and social learning theories predicted sexual intercourse in the past year and lifetime sexual partners among young and older adolescents (aged 13 to 15 years, and 16 and 17 years, respectively). Together, the findings offer partial support for the conceptual framework of development undergirding the study that elements of control or bonding and use of excuses are important influences on sexual behavior of older adolescents, whereas young adolescents are more influenced by differential peer association, including use of excuses, and a deep-seated need for love or attachment. Furthermore, the finding that friend support actually increases the likelihood of sexual partners among young adolescents may be another manifestation of their need for closeness. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

An attributional analysis of the development of excuse giving in aggressive and nonaggressive African American boys.

This study examined the effects of age and aggressive status on children's undefstanding and use of excuses. Younger (3rd-5th grade) and older (6th-8th grade) aggressive and nonaggressive African American boys were first instructed to imagine that they failed to fulfill a social obligation. The cause of the transgression was presented as controllable (e.g., choosing to do something else), and children indicated whether they would reveal that cause or make up an excuse. Next, 4 causes of the same transgression were manipulated to be either controllable or uncontrollable. Children inferred that they would be held more responsible for controllable causes of social misconduct, that these causes would elicit more anger, and that they would be more likely to withhold these causes (i.e., make up an excuse). The linkages between perceived responsibility, anticipated anger, and excuse giving were stronger among older than younger boys and among nonaggressive than aggressive boys