You Don't Need Their Apology (You Need Their Inner Monologue)
From Mind Spectrum · 00:17:12
Show by The Cognitive Lab
You don't need their apology to forgive them — you need to hear what they never said out loud. A new study found that reading a fictional wrongdoer's unspoken private regret made people more likely to forgive real people who hurt them. In this episode, we break down how stepping inside someone else's inner monologue can soften resentment, even when no apology ever arrives.Paper: Angus Fletcher & Mark Matthews, "Internal focalization influences real-life empathy: a literary contribution to wellbeing", Frontiers in Psychology 17:1968457 (2026), DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1968457
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