A new survey showed that more than half of the countries considered the most polite in the world are in Europe, although their own assessment of their politeness sometimes contradicts this. The United Kingdom is considered the most polite country in Europe, according to the new survey.
But its European neighbors are not far behind: more than half of the countries in the bloc made it into the global top 25 states that are considered the most polite and hospitable towards strangers.
A survey conducted by the US-based money transfer company Remitly (source in English) covered nearly 5,000 people from 26 countries. Respondents were asked to name the countries they believe exhibit the best manners and to rate their own politeness to compare the global perception of politeness with how people assess their own politeness.
When answering about themselves, survey participants indicated, for example, whether they treat strangers with respect; they were then scored based on their level of agreement with various statements.
It is not surprising that global ratings and self-assessments often diverged.
According to survey participants from around the world, the United Kingdom ranked third in the list of the most polite countries, behind Canada and the leader of the ranking, Japan.
The authors explain this result by the social habits of the British: frequent use of "please" and "thank you" in everyday speech, self-deprecating humor, and a culture of queuing. Paradoxically, the residents of the United Kingdom rated themselves among the countries in the lower half of the politeness list. Perhaps the British are too polite to rate themselves higher than others.
A similar picture is seen in Germany: it was named the fifth most polite country due to attention to personal space, punctuality, and consideration for the interests of others; however, the Germans rated themselves only 21st in terms of politeness.
It is also paradoxical that respondents from France placed their country in fifth place, while in the global politeness ranking it is only nineteenth.
And Japan, recognized in the survey as the most polite country, rated itself only 25th in self-assessment of politeness — second from the bottom among all participating countries.
The authors of the study note that in self-assessments, the gap between countries with the highest and lowest scores was less than one point, indicating that most people tend to consider themselves polite.
