Abstract
This study examined whether excuses, which vary with the possibility of occurrence, influence ratings of forgiveness, anger, credibility, and the severity of the message. One hundred and eighty-three (183) university students were asked to read three scenarios wherein an acquaintance provided reasons for arriving late for an appointment. In these scenarios, the participants were the protagonist who were waiting for their acquaintance. The participants then rated the degree of forgiveness, anger, credibility, and the severity of the message for each reason. Results suggested that the possibility of occurrence had the opposite effect on the raters' judgments regarding credibility and forgiveness, i.e., an excuse with common content resulted in high ratings of credibility, but low ratings of forgiveness, and vice versa. Furthermore, results suggest that the ratings of forgiveness for a latecomer originate from the raters' regulation of their anger.
