Michael Wenzel
I am Professor of Psychology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, where I joined the faculty in 2005. I was previously a Senior Research Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University and, prior to that, Lecturer at the University of Jena in Germany. I was awarded a PhD in psychology at the University of Münster, Germany, in 1996.
My research is currently primarily concerned with wrongdoing, justice and moral repair, and reconciliation in interpersonal and intergroup contexts. I am interested in the multitude of ways in which victims, offenders, and third parties respond to wrongdoing in order to repair a sense of justice, moral identity, and social relationships. To understand preferences for different responses to wrongdoing, it is important to appreciate the symbolic implications that wrongdoing has for the different parties involved. These implications concern the moral self and social identity, ranging from issues that distinguish self from other, such as status, power, and control, to issues that unite self and other, such as shared values that define a common identity. The roles of punishment and forgiveness, as well as confession, apology, and self-forgiveness, can be analyzed from such a functional perspective, together with the moderating influences of identity and moral emotions.
Primary Interests:
- Aggression, Conflict, Peace
- Ethics and Morality
- Group Processes
- Intergroup Relations
- Interpersonal Processes
- Political Psychology
- Self and Identity
Journal Articles:
- Berndsen, M., Wenzel, M., Thomas, E. F., & Noske, B. (2018). I feel you feel what I feel: Perceived perspective-taking promotes victims’ conciliatory attitudes because of inferred emotions in the offender. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, O103–O111. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2321
- Bury, S. M., Wenzel, M., & Woodyatt, L. (2016). Giving hope a sporting chance: Hope as distinct from optimism when events are possible but not probable. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 588–601.
- De Vel‐Palumbo, M., Woodyatt, L., & Wenzel, M. (2018). Why do we self‐punish? Perceptions of the motives and impact of self‐punishment outside the laboratory. European Journal of Social Psychology. Advance online publication, doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2368
- Hornsey, M. J., Okimoto, T. G. & Wenzel, M. (2017). The appraisal gap: Why victim and transgressor groups disagree on the need for a collective apology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 135–147.
- Okimoto, T. G., Hornsey, M. J., & Wenzel, M. (2015). Apologies demanded yet devalued: Normative dilution in the age of apology. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 60, 133–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.05.008
- Wenzel, M., Anvari, F., De Vel-Palumbo, M., & Bury, S. M. (2017). Collective apology, hope and forgiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72, 75-87. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2017.05.003
- Wenzel, M., Lawrence-Wood, E., Okimoto, T. G., & Hornsey, M. J. (2018). A long time coming: Delays in collective apologies and their effects on sincerity and forgiveness. Political Psychology, 39, 649-666. doi: 10.1111/pops.12421
- Wenzel, M., & Okimoto, T. G. (2015). “We forgive”: A group’s act of forgiveness and its restorative effects on members’ feelings of justice and sentiments towards the offender group. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 18, 655-675. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1368430215586274.
- Wenzel, M., & Okimoto, T. G. (2014). On the relationship between justice and forgiveness: Are all forms of justice made equal? British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 463-483 doi:10.1111/bjso.12040
- Wenzel, M., & Okimoto, T. G. (2012). The varying meaning of forgiveness: Relationship closeness as a moderator of forgiveness effects on feelings of justice. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 420-431.
- Wenzel, M., & Okimoto, T. G. (2010). How acts of forgiveness restore a sense of justice: Addressing status/power and value concerns raised by transgressions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 401-417.
- Wenzel, M., Okimoto, T. G., Feather, N. T., & Platow, M. J. (2010). Justice through consensus: Shared identity and the preference for a restorative notion of justice. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 909-930.
- Wenzel, M., Okimoto, T. G., Feather, N. T., & Platow, M. J. (2008). Retributive and restorative justice. Law and Human Behavior, 32, 375-389.
- Wenzel, M., Okimoto, T. G., & Hornsey, M. J., Lawrence-Wood, E., & Coughlin A.-M. (2017). The mandate of the collective: Apology representativeness determines perceived sincerity and forgiveness in intergroup contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 758–771. doi: 10.1177/01461672176970
- Wenzel, M., Turner, J. K., & Okimoto, T. G. (2010). Is forgiveness an outcome or initiator of sociocognitive processes? Rumination, empathy and cognitive appraisals following a transgression. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 369-377.
- Wenzel, M., Woodyatt, L., & Hedrick, K. (2012). No genuine self-forgiveness without accepting responsibility: Value reaffirmation as a key to maintaining positive self-regard. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 617-627.
- Woodyatt, L., & Wenzel, M. (2014). A needs-based perspective on self-forgiveness: Addressing threat to moral identity as a means of encouraging interpersonal and intrapersonal restoration. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 125-135. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.09.012
- Woodyatt, L., & Wenzel, M. (2013). Self-forgiveness and restoration of an offender following an interpersonal transgression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 32, 225-259.
- Woodyatt, L., & Wenzel, M. (2013). The psychological immune response in the face of transgressions: Pseudo self-forgiveness and threat to belonging. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 951-958. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.016
- Woodyatt, L., Wenzel, M., & Ferber, M. (2017). Two pathways to self-forgiveness: A hedonic path via self-compassion and a eudaimonic path via the reaffirmation of violated values. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 515-536. doi:10.1111/bjso.12194
Courses Taught:
- Advanced Social Psychology
- Personality and Social Psychology
Michael Wenzel
School of Psychology
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5041
Australia
- Phone: +61 8 82012274