A Japan-United States comparison of apology styles

The current investigation compares the U.S. American and Japanese perceptions of, and reaction to, situations that potentially require apology. Two hundred U.S. and 181 Japanese college students completed a questionnaire in which each was asked to: (a) rate the victim's and the offender's initial reactions to the situation, (b) produce a message indicating what the offender would say in response to the situation, and (c) rate the victim's feelings after the message was delivered. The messages were deconstructed into minimal meaningful segments and were coded to indicate the apology strategies used.Both U.S. Americans and Japanese expected the victim to be upset about the situation, even more upset if the offender did not respond to the situation, and less upset if the offender responded. Japanese anticipated the victim to be more upset than did Americans both before and after the message was delivered as well as about the damage and with the offender.Members of both cultures reported that the offender would be more likely to respond than not, and expected the following features to be included in the message: (a) statement of remorse, (b) accounts, (c) evaluation of damage, and (d) reparation. The use of other strategies such as promise not to repeat the same offense was more specific to situations than to cultures. U.S. Americans used accounts strategies more often than did Japanese. Japanese employed reparation, compensation, promise not to repeat the same offense, and request for forgiveness strategies more often than did U.S. Americans.These cultural differences are attributed to differences in: (a) physical realities, (b) cultural norms, and (c) beliefs about communication in the two cultures.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio