I’m not surprised by the specific psychological benefits enumerated. Speaking as someone who has struggled for much of my life to learn to apologize—a challenge

I’m not surprised by the specific psychological benefits enumerated. Speaking as someone who has struggled for much of my life to learn to apologize—a challenge for a variety of reasons, but definitely exacerbated by rejection sensitivity—that’s exactly what refusing to apologize felt like, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. However, this came with some pronounced social damage. Not to mention hurting people I care about, again even if I didn’t realize it at the time. Learning to apologize, when I’m in the wrong or even just when I’ve mistakenly caused harm, hasn’t been easy. I still have work to do. But it’s had psychological benefits too. It’s helped me form more stable and trusting bonds, which has had the unintuitive-to-younger-me benefit of assuaging my rejection sensitivity, and even making me feel more secure in my self esteem. It’s helped me feel I can also better trust others, and that I can expect the same regard when I’ve felt wronged. I’m not disputing anything in this study, but I think this perspective is also worth sharing.