Hey r/asktrp, was thinking away today on the subject of apologies in general, and while I've come to my own conclusions I thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about here.

I'd like to put a disclosure here at the start that I'm Scottish, and like the rest of the UK (and I'm sure our Canadian cousins) "Sorry" is a well used word in my vocabulary- it's just a cultural thing. What I'd like to discuss here however are meaningful- or pseudo-meaningful- apologies, and not the muttered phrase when you bump into someone accidentally.

The conclusion I've come to is that with apologies, there's two fundamental types. Those you give to men, and of course those you give to women.

With men, I feel admitting you are wrong should come easily to you when the case is so. To me, actually saying "I'm sorry" is a different situation however. Ultimately, it comes down to a respect game for me here. If you apologise too much for the little things, the apologies for the real mistakes don't mean as much. In that train of thought, a real man will respect a fellow man more for genuinely apologising when it is due. I'd be interested to hear further opinions on those from you guys.

For women, apologies are a power game. The minute you apologise to a woman, she will feel like she has won- in whatever situation it is. When you apologise to a woman, you are entering her frame. For me, this means that to apologise to a woman, there must be a damn good reason for it- a reason you should have avoided in the first place. I would also be interested in hearing more thoughts on this.

Again, I simply thought this would be an interesting area of discussion here. Would be good to know what you guys think on the matter, whether in agreement or contradiction.