Narrative Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
June 27, 2019·1 comment·In Brief
The most powerful people seem to get away with refusing to admit mistakes. When they do apologize, their credibility often gets worse, not better. This suggests something broken about how we process narrative and belief, and broken in a way that rewards the unrepentant.
• Apologies don't restore credibility for influential figures. A study on public perception found that admissions of error corrode trust instead. The confession becomes another piece of evidence against them rather than a path to forgiveness.
• When someone admits error, the narrative abstractions protecting them collapse. All the once-removed justifications we constructed for believing in them vanish almost instantly. The gap is psychological, not logical.
• Those who cultivate the skill of never admitting error rise to power more reliably than others. The refusal to apologize isn't despite their influence. The refusal itself is part of what makes them effective at steering belief.
• When consultants advise public figures to apologize, they're not trying to help credibility. They're managing social taboos that would otherwise prevent economic interaction. The apology is penance, not rehabilitation.
• If narrative-dependent power rewards those who refuse accountability, what happens to the systems they control. And what does our susceptibility to this say about how easily we can be steered by those at the top.
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Comments
The Lance Armstrong story/narrative is so complicated. I would have picked someone simpler like Michael Milken.
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