When you go to Britain, you may notice that the people of this country often apologize or call everyone who speaks to them like "my love" and "dear." If you want to discover the secret of this British decency, you should look forward to the results of a recent study.
The study involved 1,000 British people and showed that each of them said the word "sorry" 8 times a day on average. But this number has risen to 20 times for each of eight people in a BBC investigation.
To confirm these figures, anthropologist Kate Fox traveled the streets of a number of British villages and cities. And deliberately collided with pedestrians to watch their reaction. She asked her colleagues to do the same. It was found that 80% of the people who collided said "sorry" or "sorry" although they did not.
However, the linguist Edwin Batistella pointed out that apology is an indication of openness towards the other and an indirect way to reach the goals. This was called the "negative refinement," which is the point of British power.
Fox has warned that excessive use of the word "pardon" is meaningless and may embarrass outsiders who often do not use it.