Psychology (Functional Area: Social and Personality)

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Open Access
The Impact of the Emotional Tone of Confrontation on Perceptions of Confronters of Sexism
(2024-03-16) Chan, Courtney; Kawakami, Kerry
Despite the numerous benefits associated with confronting sexism, many women refrain from doing so due to social consequences and negative perceptions. Utilizing an online scenario study, the present research further examines these perceptions, exploring whether a woman confronting with an angry, sad, or disgusted tone may impact how she is perceived on a series of traits related to likability, power, morality, masculinity, and age, whether the emotional tone of the confrontation impacts beliefs about her obligation to confront, and expectations of future behavior for both the confronter and the perpetrator. Findings revealed that an angry or disgusted confronter was perceived as more powerful than a sad confronter. Additionally, participants felt she was more obligated to confront when angry and anticipated future confrontations when disgusted. Notably, the emotional tone did not influence expectations regarding the perpetrator's future behavior. Discussion explores implications of these findings and suggests potential avenues for future research.
Open Access
Interpersonal Factors Underlying Self-Concept Change: Role of Sociotropy and Autonomy
(2024-03-16) Galfi-Pechenkov, Ingrid; McCann, C Douglas
The beliefs, ideas, and theories we have about ourselves (i.e., the "self-concept") are powerful determinants of how we think, feel, and act. This dissertation was interested in one aspect of the self-concept that is concerned with the need for relationships and positive interchanges with others and the need for independence and personal achievement (Beck, 1983). Beck (1983) termed these concerns sociotropy and autonomy. It has been theorized the self-concept can shift with situational demands (e.g., Beck et al., 2021). This dissertation employed Beck's (1983) sociotropy-autonomy model of personality as a framework to investigate interpersonal factors underlying change in self-concept content and mood. Four empirical studies looked at: a) the extent to which sociotropy-autonomy predict spontaneous self-concept content and mood, b) the effect of contextual cues about interpersonal orientation on patterns of spontaneous self-descriptions and mood, and c) participants' subjective interpretations of situation descriptions and elements that may be important in situation appraisals among sociotropic and autonomous individuals. A key finding was that for those scoring high on sociotropy, an increased focus on independent aspects of the self-concept was associated with less negative mood and negative self-descriptions, but may not have reflected a shift to individualistic views of the self-concept as previous research suggests. Results are discussed in terms of clinical, theory, and research implications. One implication of the results is that constructing the self-concept can be done more intentionally.
Open Access
Science = South Asian? Examining Stereotyping and Perceived Employability of South Asian Women and Men
(2023-12-08) Lapytskaia, Christina; Steele, Jennifer
Past research has established the existence and negative consequences of gender stereotypes in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Far less is known about the existence and impact of racial stereotypes in STEM, particularly as they interact with gender stereotypes for racial minority women. To address this gap, in the current research I examined science stereotyping of South Asian people, who belong to a rapidly growing ethnic minority group in North America that has been largely excluded from past research. Across five studies, I adopted a multimethod approach, using implicit, indirect, and explicit measures to examine race and gender stereotypes, as well as stereotyping at the intersection of both identities, with a focus on South Asian versus White male and female targets. Across implicit and explicit measures, and with both racially diverse and race specific (South Asian/White; Study 2a) samples, I found evidence of both race (Studies 1a and 1b) and gender (Studies 2a, 2b, 3) stereotyping in STEM, with science being more associated with South Asian (versus White) and male (versus female) targets. The only exception was when South Asian women were paired with White men; in this case evidence was more mixed, as responses consistent with both gender (Study 1b, 2b, 3) and race (Study 2b) stereotyping was found on the implicit measures. The current research also examined the role of science stereotypes in employment recommendations (the indirect measure). Across all studies, targets of South Asian descent were viewed more positively in scientific domains, suggesting the potential for a positive employment bias in these fields. However, in line with compartmentalization models of intersectional stereotyping, perceptions of South Asian men were often more positive than of South Asian women, and this was true across implicit, indirect, and explicit measures. Taken together, these findings suggest that the unique combination of race and gender stereotypes South Asian women face can be context dependent, especially when compared to the experiences of South Asian men, White men, or White women. This research reinforces the need to examine gender and racial stereotyping from an intersectional perspective.
Open Access
What's past is prologue: Assessing the interplay of history, identity, and sociopolitical attitudes in Canada
(2023-12-08) Padgett, Jessica Kate; Lalonde, Richard N.
Our social identities are built and maintained through a variety of cultural tools that help us feel a sense of cohesion with the groups to which we belong. Although Canadians belong to a wide variety of distinct cultural groups, something that can tie them together is a shared sense of history. In this dissertation, I consider the important role that social representations of history play in Canadian identity and how identity and history work together to inform contemporary sociopolitical views. Manuscripts 1 and 2 are based on data that was collected from Canadian universities in Toronto, Halifax, and Québec City. Manuscript 1 examines the values and identities of undergraduate students from these three regional-linguistic groups. We found that while participants from the two English-speaking regional groups had a strong sense of Canadian identity, the Québec City participants did not and instead held a stronger provincial identity. Manuscript 2 focussed on the content of young Canadians’ social representations of history and their historical biases. We again found a contrast between our English-speaking regional groups and Québec City, whereby the former seemed to have a less unified set of collective memories and the latter held a consistent narrative about Québécois nation-building and cultural conflict. We also found that all three groups held a positivity bias about Canadian history that was related to Canadian identity. Manuscript 3 was based on two community samples of Canadians who were presented with biased historical narratives to influence their current sociopolitical attitudes. Although we found no evidence of this effect, we did discover that Canadians believe that historical events related to marginalized groups are much more important than historical events that aren’t directly related to such groups. Evidence of a positivity bias was found again, whereby positive events related to historically oppressed groups were considered especially important. Altogether, this dissertation enhances our understanding of Canadian identity and the contemporary sociopolitical values of Canadians. It also offers original insights for the social representations of history literature by cataloguing the unique collective memories of a multicultural country and providing evidence of a robust relationship between history and social identity.
Open Access
The Barriers That People with Lower Social Class Background Face in Attaining Prestige: The Case of Volubility
(2023-12-08) Arshad, Memoona; Cheng, Joey
Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success.
Open Access
Perceptions and Consequences of Confronting Sexism: A Multi-Method Examination of Context and Confronter Identities
(2023-12-08) Vaccarino, Elysia; Kawakami, Kerry
Despite the numerous benefits of confronting prejudice, people rarely stand up to expressions of intergroup bias. Across three papers and nine studies, using a multi-method approach spanning scenario studies, reverse correlation paradigms, and an immersive interpersonal interaction, the present research investigated consequences and support for confrontation across confronter identities and contexts and their associated outcomes. In three experiments, Paper 1 examined expectations for confrontation related to a sexist incident, evaluations of the actors across confronting responses, and support for confrontation. These questions were investigated across various confronter identities (female target versus male witness) and context (social versus professional). In four experiments, Paper 2 used a reverse correlation paradigm to explore attributes (i.e., likeability, morality, masculinity, power, and age) associated with mental images of confronters versus nonconfronters of sexism. These perceptions were examined across varying confronter identities (female target, male witness, self). In two experiments, Paper 3 implemented an online chat interaction to investigate how confronting or passive responses affected perceptions of competence and likeability, support for confrontation, and leadership outcomes. Together, the results provide novel evidence for not only the disadvantages but also the advantages associated with confronting sexism across confronter identity and contexts. Benefits of confronting, particularly in domains related to power, competence, and leadership are highlighted.
Open Access
Social Attention in Diverse Social Worlds: Biculturalism, Racial Diversity, and Regional Culture Shape Gaze Cueing Behaviour
(2023-12-08) Lo, Ronda; Lalonde, Richard N.
Observing a directional gaze triggers an attention shift in the same direction as that gaze, also known as gaze cueing. Given that gaze cueing has been observed in human infants and monkeys, it is considered a universally evolved mechanism that provides the foundation for learning about one’s social world. Recent research, however, suggests that some features of gaze cueing may be shaped by culture. One such feature is whether the gaze cueing effect is interrupted by gazes embedded in the background (i.e., social context). In this dissertation, I unpack how biculturalism, racial diversity, and regional cultures can influence the extent to which gaze cueing from a focal gaze is interrupted by gazes in the social context. This dissertation uses a multi-gaze cueing task, in which a central foreground gaze and four background gazes are presented, and gaze cueing from the foreground gaze is measured. Chapter Two presents two experiments that test whether priming interdependent vs. independent self-construals can influence gaze cueing by increasing or decreasing interference from the background gazes in two different cultural populations. We found that interdependent self-construal priming was effective for bicultural East Asian Canadians, but not monocultural European Canadians. These findings suggest that being bicultural may provide the necessary long-term experience of shifting between different modes of social attention to allow self-construal primes to be effective. Chapter Three presents two experiments that test whether the social attention system prioritizes proximal features of the social environment, such as racial makeup. Across both experiments, East Asian Canadians, East Asians from East Asia, and European-descent North Americans exhibited greater attention to the gazes of own- vs. other-race faces in an ensemble coding manner. These findings suggest that gaze cueing is driven by perceived race. Chapter Four presents a comparison of gaze cueing behaviour across two extensively examined regions, North America and East Asia, and two less explored regions, and Middle East and South Asia. Results suggest that East Asians’ gaze cueing is interrupted by the gazes in the social context to a greater extent than North Americans. Middle Easterners and South Asians display “intermediate” levels of interference from the social context between East Asians and North Americans. Altogether, this dissertation presents evidence that social attention is shaped by cultural experiences found within and across regions.
Open Access
I'm Watching You: Examining Mate Value Discrepancy, Power, and Jealousy in Electronic Intrusion of Romantic Partners
(2023-08-04) Millett, Grace Kathleen; Struthers, C. Ward
Electronic intrusion (EI), the act of monitoring a romantic partner and violating their boundaries online, has gained empirical interest as a prevalent form of digital dating abuse (DDA). The present thesis sought to explore why individuals perpetrate EI against their partners. Within the framework of evolutionary theory, prior research has revealed high mate value discrepancies (MVD) predict greater DDA perpetration. In the present research two cross-sectional correlational studies test perceived MVD as a predictor of EI perpetration, jealousy as a moderator, and desire for power as a mediator of this association. Across both studies I found that contrary to predictions, MVD did not predict EI perpetration, jealousy did not moderate this association, and desire for power did not mediate the association. These findings contribute to the literature on this new form of partner abuse and suggest that further work is needed to understand why individuals perpetrate EI towards their partners.
Open Access
Zoom Usage and Cognitive Load
(2023-08-04) Carolli, Alecia; Greenglass, Esther
Self-evaluation during Zoom meetings is suspected to contribute to cognitive load. The current experimental study investigated the effects of having access to view oneself during a Zoom meeting on cognitive load, where participants either did or did not have access to view themselves, while on camera. During the call, cognitive load was assessed through performance on a task. Women in comparison to men, and those high on public self-consciousness, were expected to experience more cognitive load, especially when they could see themselves. The results found that at a low level of public self-consciousness, participants who could see themselves experienced higher cognitive load. Unexpectedly, the opposite occurred at a high level of public self-consciousness; participants who could not see themselves experienced higher cognitive load. Further investigation is required to determine the factors contributing to these results. Nonetheless, this work adds to the limited understanding of the psychological consequences of Zoom usage.
Open Access
Prove Me Wrong: The Impacts of Anxious Attachment and Non-Apology on Conflict Resolution in Romantic Relationships
(2023-08-04) Davison, Brianna Grace; Struthers, C. Ward
Managing conflict is an integral aspect of romantic relationships. When a romantic partner transgresses against the other partner, the way the victim of the transgression responds to conflict is often motivated by their attachment style and the post-transgression responses (PTRs) of their romantic partner. The present research involved 238 participants in romantic relationships. Participants completed an online study to assess the association between a victim's anxious attachment and destructive PTR (i.e., grudge-disdain, avoidance, and low forgiveness), the moderating role of a victim’s perception of their offending partner’s nonapology, and the mediating explanation of a victim’s perceived availability and responsiveness of an offending partner. A moderated mediation model was hypothesized and tested. Results confirmed that a victim’s perception of their offending partner’s nonapology moderated the association between victims’ anxious attachment and destructive PTRs. Perceived availability and responsiveness did not mediate the moderated association. Overall, these finds suggest that offending partners' PTRs play a role in motivating the post-transgression responses of anxiously attached victims.
Open Access
Improving Police Response to Autistic Persons: A Community-Informed, Attributional Approach
(2023-08-04) Salerno, Alisha Carmela; Schuller, Regina
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect social interaction, communication, and behaviour. autistic individuals may react differently in stressful situations, such as police encounters, which can subsequently lead to adverse outcomes. The current research examines police response toward autistic individuals. In the first paper, I examined how autistic community members perceive the challenges police may face when interacting with autistic individuals, as well as explored community-informed recommendations on how interactions between the police and autistic people can be better managed. In the second paper, across four studies, I examined decision-making in police interactions with autistic people through a lens of attribution theory, exploring how autistic-characteristic behaviour affects attributions and responses. Taken together, this research represents a novel exploration of decision-making toward autistic people in police encounters, and how these interactions can be better managed, using an evidence-based, community-informed approach.
Open Access
The Goal of Gaming: The Motivations Behind Playing Different Videogame Genres
(2023-08-04) Quinlan, Joshua Augustus; Mar, Raymond
Videogames are a massively popular form of media that offer a wide variety of experiences to a wide variety of people. However, a great deal of videogames research does not reflect this nuance, instead treating videogame exposure as a homogenous monolith. This dissertation aims to capture this nuance, contributing to our understanding of videogames through the lenses of genres, types of gamers, and needs. We first identify a list of videogame genres for use in research and the factor structure underlying those genres (Study 1). Using those factors, we then identify a gamer typology that largely replicates across multiple samples (Studies 2–4). We then examine whether different genres and different gamer profiles are uniquely associated with different forms of videogame need satisfaction (Study 4). Our predicted associations between genres and needs are mostly supported by the data, but the predicted associations between profiles and needs are only partially supported by the data. Finally, across two waves of data, we examine how the need frustration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected the use of games to satisfy needs, and how that affected well-being (Study 5). We hypothesized that people would change their gaming habits to satisfy the most frustrated needs, which would in turn lead to better well-being. Broadly speaking, we find this effect only for autonomy, and not for relatedness or competence. We also find that, in some cases, gaming to satisfy needs is associated with worse well-being. This latter finding could be due to people relying too heavily on videogames to try to address their malaise, without success. Overall, we provide a novel and nuanced look into the relations among videogame genres, the people who play them, and the needs that they satisfy.
Open Access
Financial (In)Security is Tied to Personal Well-Being for Men and Relationship Well-Being for Women When Women Endorse Sexist Attitudes
(2023-08-04) Liepmann, Alexandra; Muise, Amy
Benevolent sexism undermines gender equality by ascribing men and women to traditional gender roles, with women as warm caregivers and men as protectors and financial providers. The appeal of these beliefs for women lay in the security and financial provision that men provide. However, if partners do not live up to these ideals (i.e., men violate the expectations of providing financial security), both men and women could experience poorer well-being. Specifically, men could experience lower personal well-being (anxiety) and women could experience lower relational well-being (lower relationship satisfaction). We examined how men and women’s benevolent sexism moderated the association between men’s reports of financial security and men and women’s well-being. In the current study, we followed 171 mixed-gender couples (who were tracked weekly and over several months), during a time of heightened financial insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that when women were higher (compared to lower) in benevolent sexism, men’s anxiety was negatively associated with their financial security, such that they felt more anxiety when they reported lower financial security. When women endorsed benevolent sexism, and had a partner who reported lower financial security, women experienced lower relationship satisfaction. The findings support a key tenet of Ambivalent Sexism Theory — men’s role as the financial provider — and demonstrate that when women hold gendered expectations that are violated, there are negative outcomes for both men and women’s well-being. Implications, including how gendered expectations in relationships can undermine well-being in the face of challenges, are discussed.
Open Access
Judgments of Propaganda Near and Far: National Identity and Media Evaluations
(2022-12-14) Dunk, Rebecca Joy; Mar, Raymond
We often judge others differently than we judge ourselves. This study aimed to investigate whether this asymmetry in judgements also exists for extensions of the self and the other: judging one’s own nation compared to a foreign nation. We also asked whether these judgements would be moderated by national identity such that Canadians who identified more strongly with their nation would judge foreign media as more like propaganda than Canadian media. To assess such judgements, we created identical propaganda videos that ostensibly originated from either the Canadian government or a foreign government. When judgements of propaganda were measured covertly, we found no difference in judgements of Canadians and foreign videos. However, when asked explicitly about propaganda, Canadians judged videos from their own nation as more like propaganda compared to foreign videos. Contrary to our prediction, Canadian national identity did not moderate propaganda judgements.
Open Access
Forecasting your Financial Future: A Construal Level Theory Perspective on Economic Stress and Coping
(2022-03-03) Too, Miranda Aislinn Hanna; Greenglass, Esther
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, young Canadians are facing an uncertain employment future. This project sought to investigate how mental representations of prospective stressors impact perceptions of threat. Using Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010) and Stress and Coping Theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) as conceptual frameworks, the present research examined the relationship between construal, psychological distance, and stress appraisal in the domain of economic stress. Results indicated that construing a stressor in abstract terms attenuates the relationship between psychological distance and perceived threat. Further, psychological distance from a stressor was associated with predicted future affect and financial resources. There was no significant association between psychological distance and social support resources. Contrary to expectations, no association was found between psychological distance and construal. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed
Open Access
Charmed I'm Sure: Do Charismatic People Have More Satisfying Sexual and Romantic Relationships?
(2021-11-15) Tu, Eric; Muise, Amy
High quality romantic relationships are a key predictor of health and well-being, but sexual dissatisfaction and frequent conflict can make it challenging to maintain relationship quality over time. Personality traits, such as the Big Five personality dimensions have been associated with relationship and sexual satisfaction, but less is known about other individual differences. Across three multi-method studies, I tested the role of charisma, the quality of being influential and affable, in the maintenance of sexual and relationship quality. Charismatic people were more responsive to their partners needs during sex and both they and their partners reported higher sexual satisfaction and desire. People higher in charisma also reported higher relationship quality, in part because they used more positive conflict management strategies. The current research is among the first to investigate charisma, which has primarily been studied in workplace and leadership contexts, as a protective factor in the maintenance of intimate relationships.
Open Access
The Cost of Being "True to Yourself" for Mixed Selves: Frame Switching Negatively Affects Biculturals' Perceived Authenticity, Impacting Well-Being, Intercultural Person Perception and Dating Prospects
(2021-07-06) West, Alexandria Leta; Muise, Amy
As diversity increases throughout the world, a growing number of biculturalspeople who are regularly exposed to and identify with at least two culturesnavigate multiple cultural contexts on a daily basis. Despite the growth of this population, we know relatively little about what it is like for biculturals to manage the demands of their multiple cultures and how the ways in which they do so affect their characteristics and experiences. This dissertation research examines the psychological and social consequences of one common way that biculturals negotiate their cultures known as frame switching, whereby a bicultural adapts their ways of thinking and behaving to meet the demands of their immediate cultural context. Situated within North America contexts (Canada and the US), biculturals frame switching behaviour may violate the Western conception of authentic behaviour and carry unintended costs for biculturals. This dissertation contains two papers that explore the consequences of biculturals frame switching across an array of non-trivial outcomes, providing statistical and causal-chain evidence that these negative effects are mediated by perceived inauthenticity. Paper 1 presents two experiments addressing the negative effects of frame switching on: 1) biculturals self-perceived authenticity and the subsequent impact on their well-being and 2) monocultural Canadians perceptions of a biculturals authenticity and the subsequent impact on impressions of the bicultural on multiple desirable traits. Paper 2 presents four experiments addressing the negative effects of biculturals frame switching behaviour on monocultural Americans perceptions of their authenticity and the mediating role of authenticity on subsequent consequences for general impressions and dating prospects of biculturals. Finally, the contribution of this dissertation within the broader fields of biculturalism, social identities, and intergroup research and future directions are discussed.
Open Access
Perceived Racial Bias and Perceptions of Trust
(2021-03-08) Nickel, Madeline Maria; Kawakami, Kerry
With recent increased attention to a long history of racial injustice in society, it has become imperative to learn about the perceptions and experiences of racial minorities. Although trends may suggest that racial prejudice is on the decline (Charlesworth & Banaji, 2019), Black Americans report that they continue to face discrimination and are treated less fairly than their White counterparts (Pew Research Center, 2019). Research suggests that racial biases lead to a multitude of negative interpersonal outcomes for Black people, such as feeling suspicious or distrustful of White people and exercising vigilance toward positive actions, which can in turn elicit anxiety (Tropp, 2006). The present research includes two experiments that investigated how perceptions of racial bias by Black participants impact judgments of trustworthiness of Black and White targets related to positive emotional expressions. In Study 1, Black participants were given a media article that depicted White people as either racially biased or not racially biased in response to events in the lives of Black people. Study 2 also included a control article in which White peoples responses to Black people were not described. In both studies, participants rated true smiles as more trustworthy than false smiles on White but not Black faces. On average, Black targets were rated as relatively more trustworthy regardless of the type of smile they displayed. These effects were not moderated by whether White people were depicted as racially biased or not racially biased in the initial media article. Together, the findings provide novel evidence for the impact of perceived racial bias on attributions of trustworthiness related to positive emotional expressions.
Open Access
Who's sorry now? An Investigation of How Gender Shapes the Appearance and Judgment of Apologetic Faces
(2021-03-08) George, Meghan Louise; Steele, Jennifer
Research suggests that successful apologies include key verbal components such as admitting responsibility and asking for forgiveness. However, there is limited research examining the nonverbal aspects of apology and specifically whether people have a mental representation of apologetic faces. In three studies, reverse correlation was used to examine mental representations and judgments of apologetic faces that differed by gender. In each study, a visual template of an apologetic face was created using the responses of participants who completed a perceptual judgement task designed to estimate peoples mental representations. In a second phase, a separate group of participants rated the apologetic face as well as the base face from which it was created on various apology- and gender-related characteristics. In each study, the generated apologetic face was consistently rated as being more apologetic, regretful, and remorseful than the base face, suggesting that peoples mental representation of an apologetic face can be approximated using reverse correlation. Sadness was the highest rated characteristic for each face and ratings of sadness significantly predicted ratings of apology for three of the four visual templates created, suggesting that sadness is an important nonverbal aspect of an apologetic face. Submissiveness also emerged as a significant predictor of apology for three of the four faces; by contrast, trustworthiness, was not found to be a consistent characteristic seen in these apologetic templates. Male and female perceivers did not differ significantly in their ratings, and this was true regardless of the gender of the generator and target face. However, women generated an apologetic face from a female base face that was later judged to be significantly more apologetic than the apologetic face generated by men. These results suggest that men and women agree on their evaluations of apologetic faces, despite differences in their mental representations. This work is the first to demonstrate that people hold mental representations of an apologetic face, and that sadness is a key characteristic perceived in faces generated to appear apologetic. Coupled with the literature on verbal apologies, the current research contributes to our practical and theoretical understanding of apology.
Open Access
Sorry, Not Sorry: The Effect of Transgressors' Power on Apology and Non-Apology
(2020-11-13) Guilfoyle, Joshua Robert; Struthers, C. Ward
Power is a basic element of social relationships. Anecdotal and empirical accounts suggest power corrupts individuals behaviour and leads to situations in which apologies would be beneficial. However, the role power plays in promoting or preventing transgressors motivation to apologize has not been investigated. The purpose of this dissertation was to programmatically explore and test how, why, and when transgressors power affects their willingness to apologize or not after an interpersonal transgression. Guided by power approach theory (Keltner et al., 2003), five studies (N = 903) were designed to explore the basic relationship between power and apology, establish causality, and test a theoretical mechanism and boundary condition. In Study 1, the basic relationship between transgressors dispositional power and both apology and non-apology were established. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated the causal relationship between transgressors power and willingness to apologize, with high-power transgressors reporting less willingness to apologize and being more willing to engage in non-apology than their low-power counterparts. Study 4 manipulated and tested a theoretical mechanism, self-other focus, to explain the causal relationship. Results showed that high-power transgressors who took an other-focus were the most apologetic and engaged in the least amount of non-apology. Study 5 was a cross-cultural study using Japanese and Canadian samples designed to test a moderator of the power-apology relationtransgressors cultural context. High-power transgressors from a collectivistic culture (i.e., Japan) were more apologetic whereas high-power transgressors from an individualistic culture (i.e., Canada) were less apologetic. Interestingly, low-power transgressors from Japan were the most likely to engage in non-apology. Overall, the research summarized in this dissertation supported theoretical predictions demonstrating a basic and causal relationship between transgressors power and their apologetic and non-apologetic responses, the explanatory role of self-other focus, and the moderating influence of transgressors cultural context. The methods, results, and implications of the findings are discussed and avenues for future research are proposed.