Does an apology matter if it has to be prompted? Examples are numerous. The politics are not the issue, the issue is the sincerity of the apology.

The case of Chris Hecker
Game developer Chris Hecker - who is working on the game Spore - called the Nintendo Wii a P.O.S. in a long, long rant at the GDC (Game Developer's Conference) on March 7. "It's not clear to me that Nintendo gives a s*** about games as an art form," he said, "(Nintendo needs to) make a console that doesn't suck ass."

The next day he issued a statement withdrawing his prior comments as follows, "I do not think the Wii is a P.O.S. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford."

What are the odds he meant a single word in his apology? Not very high. The odds his employer gave him a tongue-lashing for misrepresenting the firm? High.



The case of Harvard President Summers
The president of Harvard University Lawrence H. Summers caused a furor in January 2005 when he made remarks that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. The faculty of Harvard had a problem with his statements, and he issued an apology in response. His written retraction included, "I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologize for not having weighed them more carefully. Despite reports to the contrary, I did not say, and I do not believe, that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science."

Was he sincere in his apology? Did he feel it in his heart and regret what he had stated? His apology might have had more validity if his initial response to the media uproar had been something other than what the Boston Globe reported:

Summers said he was only putting forward hypotheses based on the scholarly work assembled for the conference, not expressing his own judgments -- in fact, he said, more research needs to be done on these issues. The organizer of the conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research said Summers was asked to be provocative, and that he was invited as a top economist, not as a Harvard official.

Indeed, if he felt remorse, would not his initial response have been something more like, "I didn't mean it that way." instead of, "based on scholarly work assembled for the conference?" Summers stepped down as Harvard President in 2006.



The case of General Pace
The top military commander of the United States marine General Peter Pace stated in the Chicago Tribune on Monday that, "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts." He issued a follow-up statement the next day stating that, "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views." While Gen Pace did not apologize for his views, the statement was an obvious response to political pressure. There is no doubt that he would not have issued the statement of his own accord. If Gen Pace did not initiate the response, than is it sincere and does it matter at all?



The case of Kim Jong Il
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il apologized for a nuclear detonation in October 2006. It is difficult to believe that the leader is sincere in his regret when it took thousands of man hours to develop and detonate the nuclear device. There was sufficient time prior to the detonation to realize, "Hey, we're detonating a nuclear device."

The detonation was premeditated and intentional to agitate the world and garner attention. On October 10th the US urged for severe trade emargoes on North Korea. If Kim Jong Il regrets the detonation of the nuclear device, I would be shocked.



I would say no, apologies only matter when they are unprompted and there are no benefits to apologizing for the one responsible for the wrongdoing.

Finally, take the following extreme scenario: A murderer confesses to his crime knowing he might have gotten away with it? Sincere. A murderer confesses to reduce his sentence? Insincere.