According to Karina Schumann, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, despite associations with incompetence and weakness, people who apologise a lot are actually perceived as more warm and moral than those who say sorry more infrequently.

In the study, Schumann and her colleagues asked participants to categorise characters in a story as chronic (ie high baseline) or infrequent (ie low baseline) apologisers, and assess how any given apology one offers is perceived by the victim as genuine or heartfelt.

“We wondered whether people who receive an apology from a high baseline apologiser devalue that apology because they perceive it as a habitual behaviour for the apologiser rather than a genuine signal of remorse,” Schumann said of the research.

“We also wondered how apologies by low baseline apologisers are perceived: are they seen as extremely sincere and powerful because this person rarely apologises and therefore must really care to make things right in this situation? Perhaps their sincerity is doubted because the apologiser does not appear to be a genuinely apologetic person?”

Been told you say sorry too much? Research suggests that might not be such a bad thing