Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Publication Title
International Review of Law & Economics
Publication Title (Abbreviation)
Int'l Rev. L. & Econ.
Volume
32
First Page
178
Last Page
187
Abstract
Remorse and apologies by offenders have not been rigorously analyzed in the law and economics literature. This is perhaps because apologies are regarded as ’cheap talk’ and are deemed to be non-informative of an individual’s conscious state. In this paper, I develop a formal framework in which one can analyze remorse and apologies. I argue that legal procedures can be designed to price apologies, such that only truly remorseful individuals apologize. Hence, apologies would not be mere ’cheap talk’ and could send correct signals regarding an offender’s true conscious state, making them credible. This will lead victims, upon receiving apologies, to forgive offenders more frequently. Moreover, pricing apologies does not negatively impact the possibility of achieving optimal deterrence. An (arguably negative) effect of pricing apologies is its elimination of insincere apologies. If it is assumed that apologies, even if insincere, carry rehabilitative and/or palliative benefits, then the optimality of pricing apologies depends on a trade-off between achieving credibility and increasing such rehabilitative and palliative benefits.
DOI
doi:10.1016/j.irle.2011.12.011
Rights
Author's accepted manuscript, © 2011 Murat C. Mungan
Faculty Biography
http://law.fsu.edu/our-faculty/profiles/mungan
Recommended Citation
Murat C. Mungan,
Don't Say You're Sorry Unless You Mean It: Pricing Apologies to Achieve Credibility, 32
Int'l Rev. L. & Econ.
178
(2012),
Available at: https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles/116
Comments
This is the author's accepted manuscript version. The version of record (© 2012 Elsevier) is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818811000883 or the DOI provided above.