"Sorry to ask but ... do women apologize more than men?" (CNN)

"I am guilty of saying 'I'm sorry' way more than I really want to admit," said Janis Brett Elspas, a mom of three in Los Angeles and host of the blog Mommy Blog Expert.

"It's a sorry state, but I think I even say 'I'm sorry' to my kids and our little dog," said Elspas, conceding she uses the word when she steps on her dog or even when she asks her teenagers to do all the dishes they've left in the sink (a holdover of her habit of apologizing to them even when they were babies).

Micky Morrison, a mom of two in Islamorada, Florida, says she uses the word too often as well: "for forgetting to turn the lights off, for hitting a bad shot in tennis, for the house being a mess, for dinner being late."

"I think it's because we are taught from a very young age that we should try to please, so we find ourselves apologizing for anything that might be displeasing to someone else, even when it's something that has nothing to do with us," said Morrison, an author and founder of BabyWeightTV.

There is actually research to back up the thinking that women say "sorry" more often than men. Two studies by the University of Waterloo in Ontario and published in the journal Psychological Science back in 2010 found that while men are just as willing as women to apologize, they had a higher threshold for what they felt they needed to apologize for.

In one of the two studies, men said they would apologize less frequently than women for doing things such as inconveniencing someone they live with or being rude to a friend.

Women, more often than men, tend to apologize out of a desire to seem likeable, believes Avital Norman Nathman, editor of the motherhood anthology "The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality."

"There are awful stereotypes that come along with being a strong woman at work -- harpy, shrew, bitch, etc. ... and a 'sorry' here or there can soften our perceived image," said Norman Nathman, who also hosts a blog called The Mamafesto.

The overuse of the word "sorry" is about power, says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take the Lead, a women's leadership movement.

"The group with less power (in this case women) will always exhibit language, including body language, consistent with lesser power. Sort of a form of curtseying or kissing the ring," said Feldt, who has started teaching what she calls gender bilingual communication skills in her women's leadership courses.

"The good news is that once we are aware of the behavior, we can change it. These are learnable skills."

When I asked men if they believe women say "sorry" more often, I must admit I was surprised to learn most didn't think there was any difference.

"'Sorry' is not gender exclusive," said Buzz Bishop, a father of two in Calgary, Alberta, who blogs at Dad Camp. "It's a nice and polite thing to say. I say it. My kids say it. My wife says it."

Marty McAndrew, a father of four from Winter Park, Florida, agrees.

"I think people generally say 'sorry' when they've unintentionally slighted someone. I don't think gender comes into play in my experience."

Is this another "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" issue? How can women and men see it so differently?

"I think it's hard for people to look outside their lived experiences and (they) may not notice women apologizing with the frequency that it occurs," said Norman Nathman, the editor of the "The Good Mother Myth."

Feldt says the differing viewpoints come back to power. "When you have the power and the privilege, you also have blind spots," she said.