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Apologies are such important verbal transactions. So why are so many of them soooo bad? Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall from SorryWatch and Laura Beaudin of fauxpolo.gy pinpoint what to look out for, to sort the apologies from the fauxpologies.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Hunter Harris: “There are celebrity apologies that are stunning in their abdication of any responsibility, those that are just tepid deflections, those that are simply utterly strange. And then there are celebrity apologies like the one Armie Hammer gave this week, which is so brazen and careless it is in a class all its own.”
A majestic scream at Mario Batali’s bad apology with attached recipe.
I’m interested to hear this podcast about artist Allan Bridge’s Apology Project.
“By mumbling vague apologies and failing to individuate his words, [Boris] Johnson creates an aura of harmless stupidity that makes him seem like a friendly, slovenly underdog to a nation with a soft spot for incompetence. Getting Johnson to apologise for his long list of actual misdemeanours is a different matter.” He did more fauxpologising this week. Ugh I just can’t.
Both Laura and Marjorie recommend psychologist Harriet Lerner’s work about apologies.
There are of course zillions of public apologies - celebrity, corporate, state - too many to link here; there’s a fresh dump every day. But I’ve been studying them in new ways since speaking with the interviewees. Keep an eye out, and brace for frequent disappointment in people who could do better!
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
noria
CREDITS:
Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall analyse apologies at SorryWatch.com and twitter.com/sorrywatch.
Read Laura Beaudin’s MA thesis about fauxpologies at fauxpolo.gy, there’s so much interesting detail in it. And a lot of truly horrible public apologies.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks to Sam Pay and Ian Steadman.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and hear more of his composition on the new science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.
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