The Danger of Downplaying Mistakes

If you think no one notices that you're perpetually late for
dinner, you're probably underestimating the effects of a simple faux pas
and jeopardizing relationships in the process.

Lori McKinney, Ph.D., of Governors State University in Illinois and
Leonard Newman, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago asked 84
students to rate how their friends or significant others would react if
they broke a promise, stood them up, arrived late or failed to return a
borrowed item. Researchers then asked the injured parties how strongly
they'd actually feel about such infractions.

It turns out that some subjects, identified through earlier
psychological tests as "repressors," seriously underestimated the impact
of their negligent behavior on others. These subjects "were not at all in
tune with their partners' responses and thought everything was going to
be OK," says McKinney, who published the findings in the Journal of
Social and Clinical Psychology. "The nonrepressors, on the other hand,
actually overestimated the negative effects of such behavior."