Forgiveness and Apology Behavior of Men and Women
Britney Lewis
BIO: My hometown is North Bend, WA; however, I moved to Spokane, WA just before starting the pivotal experience of high school, so ‘Spokane’ tends to be the more acceptable answer when responding to the question, ‘Where are you from?’. I graduated from Mead High School in 2021 and started at Whitworth University a few months later. During my time at Whitworth, one of my most meaningful experiences with activities run by the university has been my involvement in Life Groups—Whitworth’s version of Bible studies—for three out of my four years.
MAJOR: Economics, Psychology
I also enjoyed competing in the Whitworth Tennis Fall Classic 2022 and UREC-organized functions of off-campus hikes and Intramural Badminton. To better my education outside of the classroom, I have been privileged to attend events such as the STCU ran Poverty and Budgeting Simulations, Balance Your Bucs personal finance presentations, the 2023 “Terrain 14” gallery celebrating Spokane artists, and the 26th Annual Economic Forecast in 2023 at the Spokane Convention Center. Additionally, I presented my Psychology Thesis with my research partner, William Tippit, at the 29th Annual Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference in Fall 2024. I was awarded the 2024 Math Department Achievement Award and am a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the International Economics Honor Society. In January 2025, I was given the incredible opportunity to fulfill my dream of studying abroad by exploring England, Germany, and Italy while studying Math History. Upon returning, I started as a Private Wealth Management Intern with Financial Forum, Inc. in Spokane, which led me on the path to being asked to stay on at the firm past my internship. After graduation, I will start as a Client Service Associate full-time in July 2025, and I am excited to further pursue my interests in the financial advising career field.
Project Overview: After reading the psychology research article, “Why Women Apologize More Than Men: Gender Differences in Thresholds for Perceiving Offensive Behavior” by Schumann and Ross (2010), the inspiration for a psychology research project was kick-started in my mind. The article discussed the divergence between men and women concerning their respective apology behaviors. The stereotype of women apologizing more than men was tested. Participants tracked their reported behavior in journals, and it was found that women apologized at higher frequencies. Yet, when researchers looked at participants recognizing their actions as a transgression, each gender apologized for an equal proportion of their offenses if it was recognized by them as a transgression (81% mean for men and women). My question was inspired by considering the compliment to an apology, forgiveness. If women engage with apology behavior at higher frequencies, whether or not a transgression has been fully realized, does this water down their engagement with relational repair? Conversely, does a lower frequency and a higher threshold for viewing a situation as apology-worthy influence greater levels of sincerity in the interpretation of forgiveness for men?
To answer this question, my efforts centered around taking a deep dive into expanding research on the topic to see how current research on Apology Behavior, Forgiveness Behavior, and Gender Difference work together. This research was mainly conducted in the Fall for my work in my Psychology Thesis course. Once spring semester came around, I utilized the opportunity given by this honors project to further build upon the foundation of research created. So, I worked to empirically refine my research approach and administer my proposed Psychology Research Study through Whitworth Qualtrics. My survey included a content analysis for participants’ comprehensive definitions of apology and forgiveness as well as responses to eight conflict vignettes to test the independent variable of Gender against four dependent variables of Offense Severity, Apology Deservedness, Forgiveness Sincerity, and Forgivingness (a willingness to forgive).
I plan to take the summer to run the data from my survey through SPSS in between-subjects ANOVA’s and t-tests to produce results from my research. The potential insights into a better understanding of gender differences amongst conflict navigation have me eager for the time to sit with the statistics behind my data.