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79 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1055 (2004)
Apology and Thick Trust: What Spouse Abusers and Negligent Doctors Might Have in Common

handle is hein.journals/chknt79 and id is 1073 raw text is: APOLOGY AND THICK TRUST: WHAT SPOUSE ABUSERS AND NEGLIGENT DOCTORS MIGHT HAVE IN COMMON ERIN ANN O'HARA* INTRODUCTION Legal scholars are paying increasing attention to the relationship between apology and legal disputes. Common legal analysis focuses on formal legal disputes and their resolution. Consequentialist schol- ars focus on how the legal rules applied to resolve disputes affect the way that actors behave, while others focus on using legal rules to promote procedurally and substantively just outcomes. Apology forms a very interesting link between ex ante behavioral incentives and ex post legal disputes and their resolution. Put differently, many legal disputes only come forward in the absence of an apology, and apologies are now commonly thought to substitute for at least partial compensation. Why do injured victims feel so strongly about receiv- ing an apology? And why are they sometimes quite quick to forgive wrongdoers after a simple heartfelt apology? Why are apologies so universally administered, and what social function do they serve? These questions are beginning to be explored by legal and other apology scholars.' When a widespread behavioral phenomenon is observed, behav- ioral biologists and evolutionary psychologists use evolutionary the- ory to attempt to understand why the behavior might have been adaptive in the environments in which we evolved. An understanding of the situations in which the behavior might be adaptive can help us to understand both (1) the contexts in which we are likely to observe * Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University. Special thanks to Claire Hill, James Blumstein, Oliver Goodenough, David Hyman, Owen Jones. Jeffrey Shoenblum, Charlie Silver, and Michael Vandenbergh, and to participants at the Chicago-Kent College of Law symposium, for helpful comments and suggestions. I also thank Julie Reed for valuable research assistance. This project was supported by a research grant from Vanderbilt Law School. 1. In addition to the sources cited infra, see Jonathan R. Cohen, Advising Clients to Apologize, 72 S. CAL. L. REV. 1109 (1999); Deborah L. Levi, The Role of Apology in Mediation, 72 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1165 (1997); Lee Taft. Apology Subverted: The Commodification of Apology, 109 YALE L.J. 1135 (2000); Elizabeth Latif, Note, Apologetic Justice: Evaluating Apologies Tailored Toward Legal Solutions, 81 B.U. L. REV. 289 (2)01). 1155

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