In the context of ordinary, day-to-day life, when a child does something that is hurtful or wrong adults demand an apology from that child. Presumably, the purpose is to teach the child a valuable “lesson.” Perhaps the lesson is simply about our values. After all, why do we insist in such circumstances that a child must apologize? And why are we careful to ensure that it is genuine or heartfelt when the child eventually does offer an apology? Answers to these questions implicate our core values.

Back in April, when a United Airlines passenger was forcibly and violently removed from his seat on an airliner, the CEO of United Airlines responded by apologizing repeatedly on national television. The apology seemed consistent with the same “lesson.” But skeptics certainly may have said it was a self-serving public relations stunt. We judge apologies in context.

When the spokesman for the president of the United States compared the brutal acts of the Syrian president to Hitler (as if Hitler's lethal use of gas in Nazi death chambers was somehow less brutal that Assad's), an apology eventually followed. Judging that apology in the political context, it could certainly be viewed as nothing more than damage control.