Posted on 06/20/2006 7:51:21 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
World's Politest People? Poll Says New Yorkers
POSTED: 2:20 pm EDT June 20, 2006
NEW YORK -- New Yorkers are the politest people in the world.
Is that a joke?
No way. Residents of the city that's gained a reputation for being rough 'n ready seem to actually have better manners than people in places like London, Toronto and Moscow.
That's according to a poll conducted by Reader's Digest, which sent reporters "undercover" to 36 cities to measure courtesy. Points were awarded for responses, and the results were compared.
Each reporter did three things: walked into buildings behind people to see if they would hold the door open for them; bought small items in stores and recorded whether the sales assistants said "thank you," and dropped a folder full of papers in busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.
More than 2,000 people were put to the test.
New Yorkers turned out to be the best bunch: 90 percent held the door open, 19 out of 20 store clerks said "thank you," and 63 percent of men and 47 percent of women helped with the flying papers.
In short, four out of five New Yorkers passed the courtesy test -- topping the list.
So guess which city ranks last in the politeness poll?
Mumbai, India.
The rudest cities in general were in Asia, where eight out of nine cities tested finished in the bottom 11. In Europe, Moscow and Bucharest ranked as the least polite.
Reader's Digest, which reaches 80 million readers in 21 languages, will publish the results in its July issue.
There's just one hitch with the poll: It's not scientific.
So there's still a chance that a visitor to New York can conduct his or her own poll: to find some rude New Yorkers.
New Yorkers are incredibly friendly. Whenever I am traveling in NYC I end up in more conversations with complete strangers than anywhere else. Nice people too.
Huh. Maybe the rude ones were vacationing in the south during the survey.
I've been all around this country.
New Yorkers are definitely the rudest people on earth.
I've never been to New York City but I would guess that most of the perceived rudeness is really just the abrupt, matter-of-fact personalities of the residents. I've dealt with several on the telephone in a business environment and while most were seemingly in a perpetual state of impatience, they were actually not rude, per se, but just in a big hurry to keep their lives moving.
Is this the only American city listed? Have they ever seen "The out of Towners" 1970
What kind of poll is this? Is this a MSM thing or what?
That's my wife's favorite movie.
Hey, geddaloadadis! I got yuh eddiket right heeeaahh!
I was going to say, those aren't NY'ers those are other tourists, lol. Jersey Girl here and I definitely have a love-hate relationship with the commuting NYer species.
I always thought New Yorkers were rather gentle and decent.
They obviously didn't check out Chicago or Detroit. They would win the rudest prize hands down.
It was a joke. We get a lot of Northern visitors. Most are very nice though.
Texans are the politest and nicest.
Hookem
Perhaps it is only when they travel or move from NYC do they become loud, overbearing and boorish.
They do talk different though:')
Well of course:')
Since I work on an equities trading desk I have worked closely with New Yorkers my entire adult life. They are wonderful, funny people. Pushy sometimes but I can push back. And always hilariously funny.
Great city NYC.
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