When I was in my teens I was playing (attempted) badminton with someone. Neither of us had had much practice so a lot of my hits fell short or went in unexpected directions. Every time that happened, I couldn't seem to stop myself from muttering, "Sorry!" Eventually the other person asked (told?) me to stop.

I'm pretty sure that what was at the back of my mind was that I'd been wanting her to like me but obviously I was never going to impress her with my crappy badminton skills. For some reason I wanted to make it clear that I knew my playing was terrible; I figured it would be far worse if I seemed not to even realize it.

Years later, a friend of mine mentioned that people had occasionally told her she apologized too much. She called herself "overapologetic" and seemed to be focusing more on not doing it (or showing she knew better) than on finding out what it was about for her. In retrospect I think she tended to project on me a bit, because she seemed to be waiting for me to be overapologetic to her so she could set me straight.

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