From the Mediation Matters Blog of Steve Mehta.
In mediation, there are frequent occasions where a party may feel genuine remorse and apologize for his or her actions. However, in the cynical world of litigation, everyone doubts when the other side acts remorseful. How can you tell when a person genuinely feels remorse? Canadian researchers think they have the answer.
Leanne ten Brinke and colleagues discovered that when people are faking remorse, they giveaway “tells.” Signs of fake remorse include:
More emotions in a shorter period
Emotional mood swings (the researchers term “emotional turbulence”)
Speaking with greater hesitation
The researchers analyzed nearly 300,000 frames of taped interviews to investigate the tells. They found that people who displayed false remorse displayed more happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and contempt — than those who were genuinely sorry.
The researchers found that people who were genuinely remorseful did not often swing directly from positive to negative emotions, but went through neutral emotions first. In contrast, those who were deceiving the researchers made more frequent direct transitions between positive and negative emotions, with fewer displays of neutral emotions in between. In addition, during fake remorse, people hesitated more in their speech patterns.
By its own admission the study is limited in scope. However the discovery regarding emotional states being tells of remorse is fascinating and requires further observation before we can set it into reality.
Research Source:
ten Brinke L et al (2011). Crocodile tears: facial, verbal and body language behaviours associated with genuine and fabricated remorse. Law and Human Behavior; DOI 10.1007/s10979-011-9265-5
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/10/can-you-fake-feeling-remorse/
This article originally appeared in the April 1997 issue of Consensus, a newspaper published jointly by the Consensus Building Institute and the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program.Talk about tough audiences. ....
By Paul KatzeffCopyright 2003 ADRWorld.com . Reprinted with permission. The Association for Conflict Resolution has joined a growing chorus of groups urging the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to open up its...
By Managing EditorFrom the blog of Nancy HudginsI’m seeing a disconnect between what’s being taught to current law students about mediation and what the best negotiation professors are advocating versus what’s actually...
By Nancy Hudgins
