Does financial compensation need to be accompanied by verbal apologies?

In intergroup conflicts, offers of financial compensation may be perceived as insulting by recipient groups and could exacerbate the conflicts.However, some scholars consider that it rather enhances the positive effects of political apologies.To test the effects of offers of apology, compensation, and apology + compensation, this study investigated how Japanese people would react to hypothetical peace deals concerning a real territorial dispute in which Japan is currently involved.Pilot Study (apology vs. compensation vs. control) revealed that Japanese participants more favorably reacted to the scenario when it described the other country offering an apology as opposed to offering compensation.In the main study, which employed a 2 (apology: present vs. absent) × 2 (compensation: present vs. absent) factorial design, Japanese participants more favorably reacted to the hypothetical deal in the apology/compensation condition than in the no apology/compensation and no apology/no compensation conditions.