How Polite Are Wee
It’s lunch time in Mexico City, and a young man follows a slim woman wearing dark glasses into a restaurant. Without looking behind her, she lets the heavy glass door swing dosed, almost smashing him in the face.
In a stationery shop in Seoul, meanwhile, a female customer wants to buy a disposable pen. It’s a minor purchase, but the store owner takes the time to talk her through a variety of different models. When she makes her purchase, he says a friendly "Thank you".
Rain and wind are whipping the Nolendorplatz, central Berlin, as estate agent Nicole, 34, struggles through the morning rush-hour crowds, her broken arm in plaster after she slipped on ice. Ahead of her, a young woman drops a yellow folder, scattering papers everywhere. Dozens of commuters walk on by, but Nicole rushes over and picks up the damp documents, gently shaking the water off each one. When thanked, she jokes, "Well, I still have one good arm!"
Our Three Tests
The young man risking a broken nose, the customer in Seoul, and the woman with the scattered documents were no ordinary members of the public. Each was a Reader5 Digest researcher taking part in a unique test to see how polite people are around the world.
From Thailand to Finland, from Buenos Aires to London, people worry that courtesy (礼貌) is fast becoming a thing of the past. Service in shops has become lazy, they say, youngsters have lost respect for their elders. Lynne Truss, in her international bestseller Talk to the Hand, claims that we live in "an era of lazy moral relativism combined with aggressive social rudeness" where common courtesies are "practically extinct".
But is such pessimism justified
We sent undercover reporters -- half of them men, half women -- from Reader’s Digest editions in 35 countries to access the citizens of their most populous city. In each location, we conducted three tests:
·We walked into public buildings 20 times behind people to see if they would hold the door open for us.
·We bought small items from 20 shops and recorded whether the sales assistants said "Thank you".
·We dropped a folder full of papers in 20 busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.
To let us compare dries, we awarded one point for each positive outcome and nothing for negative one, giving each city a maximum score of 60. We did not attempt a strict scientific survey; it was the world’s biggest real-life test of common courtesy, with more than 2,000 separate tests of actual behavior. Here’s what we discovered.
Wonderful Town
They have a reputation for being big-headed, but New Yorkers showed they are big-headed too, by finishing first in our global courtesy ratings.
They placed in the top five in all three tests and were particularly polite at holding doors open, with only two people failing to do so. Surprised Not former mayor Ed Koch. Asked to react to our findings, Koch pointed to a rise in New York niceness since the terror attacks on the city five years ago. "After 9/11, New Yorkers are more caring. They understand the shortness of life."
The second most courteous place: prosperous Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich shop assistants are friendly to people whether they are dressed shabbily or wearing an expensive fur coat. Old-fashioned customer service was very much in evidence. Swiss shop-workers’ good manners were often inspired by their pride in their work.
T for Tolerance
Toronto, Canada, came third among our 35 dries. In the trendy Queen Street West area we were helped with a dropped folder by a 28-year-old street artist. "I sit out Here doing drawings all day, and I find people to be really good and cheerful. Toronto is very tolerant, very polite." Still, two other European dries -- Berlin, Germany and Zagreb, Groatia -- did well in out tests, tying with Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the fourth place. In Sao Paulo, even petty criminals were polite. As we bought a pair of cheap sunglasses from a trader at an illegal market, shouts rang out that the police were coming. The merchant gathered up his goods to flee -- but not before thanking us for our $ 2 buy.
Doors Wide Shut
The region that most lacked courtesy: Asia. Eight out of nine dries being tested in the region finished in the bottom 11. In the last place was Mumbai, where courtesy in. shops was particularly lacking. When asked why he turned his back immediately after the sale, a rude assistant at a convenience store was unapologetic: "I’m not an educated guy. I hand goods to the customers and that’s it." In a government-run supermarket, a female employee lied that she hadn’t seen what had happened when asked why she didn’t help to pick up papers. Another worker stepped on them. "That’s nothing," said the store’s security guard. "In Mumbai, they’ll step over a person who has fallen in the street." What was most striking is Asia was how few people held doors open for us. Many Asians simply don’t include door-holding in their notions of courtesy. "How can we measure someone’s value simply by whether they hold a door open" observed a college student in Manila. A South Korean businesswoman held open the shop-door in Seoul only because "I often go overseas on work trips, and it’s basic manners over there. In South Korea, people don’t pay much attention to such things."
But we found plenty of discourteous behavior outside Asia, too. Moscow, Russia and Bucharest, Romania, ranked as the least polite European cities.
Not So Poor
What can we learn from our results While two of the world’s most wealthy cities -- Zurich and New York -- came top of our rankings, we found plenty of courtesy in poorer areas too. In Johannesburg, South Africa, our researcher concluded: "The better dressed the person, the less likely he/she is to help." Nonetheless, it was relatively prosperous cities that appeared at the top of our rankings. A British editor ventures this explanation: "Wealthier cities aren’t generally so crowded and competition for resources is less intense." But being in a hurry isn’t always barrier to helping people. Tests carried out during morning rush hours produced almost as many positive results as those performed during off-peak hours. A British government worker, who helped to gather up papers in the London rush hours, put it down to empathy (同感)。 "Everybody was in a hurry. So let’s work together and get us both on our way."
Gender (性别) and Age Difference
Many older people we encountered complained that courtesy was less prevalent among the young. But we found that the under-40s were, by a small margin, the most helpful of all age groups -- and over-60s the least. So no more resentment about the younger generation not being up to standard!
Women were slightly more courteous than men and, oddly, both groups were significantly more polite towards their own . Some men told us they worried about helping modem independent females. Perhaps that’s why men over 60, supposedly brought up in a more polite era, were the least likely of any group to hold a door for our female researchers.
Fear of Crime
Many of those who didn’t hold a door or pick up our papers explained that they were too busy or couldn’t be bothered, but a significant minority was more scared of crime -- or being seen as a criminal -- than being rode. "I’ve heard pickpockets use tricks like that," said a woman in Hong Kong, "One drops something, you help pick it up, and his accomplice (同伙) robs you while you’re not looking."
So did the world pass our courtesy test Overall our 35 cities showed it 55 percent of the time. Common courtesy is the oil that keeps the society engine running. So our check suggested that, in most places, there’s plenty of oil in the engine, but some cities could use a bit of a top-up. A vast majority of people surveyed attributed their reluctance to help pick up papers to their fear of crime.