Excuses

Here’s a wonderful brief article on excuse making (Psychology Today, August 2014, p. 22--doesn't seem to be online yet), a topic covered in the Interpersonal Communication Book and Interpersonal Messages by Amy Nordrum. Among the conclusions are these: (1)   Excuses work; they can often deflect/stave off/lessen retaliation. (2)    Too frequent excuses--such as self-handicapping excuses--will lead to a loss of faith. (3)  Effective excuses accomplish two goals: (a) they accept responsibility and offer assurances that this will not happen again and (b) they show empathy for the difficulties they caused.