Political leaders tend to apologize for wrongdoings. This study focuses on a disaster occurred on July 2018 in east Attica, Greece, where wildfires destroyed houses and left dozens of people dead. 2 pilot studies and 1 main study were conducted testing perceptions of apology as sincere, perceived trust, positive emotional climate and participants’ support towards the governmental policies. 180 participants were recruited for the 2 pilot studies overall and 222 participants for the main study. Participants were recruited from the disaster zone of east Attica. Results confirmed the hypotheses, detecting a main effect of apology condition on the dependent measures, as well as indirect effects of perceived sincerity, trust and positive emotional climate on the relationship between apology condition and political support towards the government. Political and psychological implications of forms of public apologies are discussed.
