We’re recently descended from people who left their homes and families behind and moved to another country literally on the other side of the world and had to make it based on the connections we established with the people we met when we arrived.
It shouldn’t be in the least surprising that our culture is, by default, friendlier and more outgoing as a result.
Wear a Yankee’s cap down the street in Boston. That should set you straight. Philadelphia will do in a pinch.
Why not?
Why wouldn’t we be? It costs nothing to be pleasant and may brighten someone’s day. (Also, if you’re not friendly, you’re seen as a jerk.)
Why shouldn’t we be?
Because from a young age we were taught to be polite and have manners. I think the bigger question is: Why isn’t everyone else as friendly as us?
Because life is too short to be otherwise.
Life sucks. Why would I contribute to making it worse, when I could instead choose to make it better?
It doesn’t cost anything to be friendly and doesn’t accomplish anything to be a jerk, so why wouldn’t we be friendly? Why are other countries unfriendly?
Why are non-Americans not so friendly?
But seriously: general opinion I’ve seen is that the way our country was formed – everyone an immigrant, not knowing the language of their neighbor, settling undeveloped lands, seeking a new start, etc. – created a need for people to interact and be friendly with the people around them to survive and prosper. That developed into the culture we have today.
It costs nothing to be pleasant, and I am genuinely interested in other people.
Note that this doesn’t equate to deep connections with everyone. There are guys who I worked with for a decade or more, who I still meet for golf once a week, but I have never been to their homes.
Canadians are also friendly. I think a better question would be why are other countries so rude?
It developed out of necessity and these days has just become a social convention where it’s rude not to.
GET OFF MY LAWN!
Most of us prefer to get along with others. We teach that skill in kindergarten!
It’s much easier and more pleasant to be friendly than the alternative
A part of it is that in early America there were a lot of people from a lot of places, many who spoke different languages. So they smiled to show they didn’t have hostile intent.
On top of that, it’s fine to hate the Dutch if everyone you know is British. However, if your next-door neighbors consist of a Dutchman, a Frenchman, and a German you either have to learn to get along or there will be blood on the streets. There were many who did choose option B. However most of them didn’t live long enough to influence the culture.
Life would be lonely and boring otherwise.
Would you rather people be mean?
It’s a sliding scale. There are places that are a lot more friendly than us and places that are a lot less friendly than us. But we’re closer to the friendly side. To answer why . . . who knows. I do think a lot of us are genuinely interested in other people.
The USA is quite frontier nation, mistakenly thought of as “individualistic” when in fact many Americans affirm being responsible for your own life and not looking for government to take care of your every whim. Coupled with the fact the USA is the richest, most powerful, most fun nation on earth with the highest standard of living imaginable.
We’re a nation made up of a lot of very different strangers put all together. Friendliness was/is necessary to make any of it work.
I saw something recently about the “American smile”- saying that we or our very recent ancestors lived among people who didn’t speak the same language, so big facial expressions became our way of neighbors building relationships and getting along. That sounds about right to me.
(I’m from a part of the country known for “unfriendliness”- but we still smile to communicate with people whose language we might not speak)
It costs me nothing to be friendly and often it’s a net benefit.
Kindness or at least politeness is emphasized in our upbringing.
Because it sucks even being around such miserable people.
Alexis Tocqueville in his *Democracy in America* (Tocqueville was a French government official sent to America in the early 1800s to “spy” on the new nation) noted how Americans had an open and casual manner to strangers, which he found a stark contrast to the hierarchical and stiff formalities of Europeans. He thought it stemmed from the overall “equality of conditions” between Americans, where no one had aristocratic titles.
Because fuck you that’s why.
Is it just Americans though? Canadians and Mexicans are very friendly too. Actually I would say like the entirety of North and South America has a culture of being both loud and friendly lol
that depends on where you live in America too
Do you want us to be mean and cranky and grumpy instead?
We’re friendly until you go onto one of our local town facebook groups. Those are cesspits.
Next post: “Why are Americans so unfriendly?”
The bigger question would be why are non-Americans (and people from the east coast) so rude?
Why are non-Americans not so friendly?
Why not be a decent human being, it messes up my stomic being an asshole
No reason not to be? Lol. Why would you want to be a jerk all the time? Sounds exhausting.
I’m from the South. It’s just our nature!
Idk, I guess. It’s just normal! Makes normal outings fun bc you never know who you’re going to meet! I don’t get why many Europeans are so antisocial, haha
The real question is why isn’t everyone else? It doesn’t cost a thing to be polite and pleasant.
42 comments
Because we are….
Not sure how to answer that question
I mean, why not? Is there a downside here I’m missing?
It’s just part of our general culture and nature, but not all of us are friendly
Edit: here are three other posts asking the same exact thing with lots of answers:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/hwok9f/why_are_americans_so_friendly_outgoing_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/hwok9f/why_are_americans_so_friendly_outgoing_and/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/ehe25w/why_are_americans_so_intensely_friendly/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/ehe25w/why_are_americans_so_intensely_friendly/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/z3v2s4/why_are_americans_so_friendly/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/z3v2s4/why_are_americans_so_friendly/)
We’re recently descended from people who left their homes and families behind and moved to another country literally on the other side of the world and had to make it based on the connections we established with the people we met when we arrived.
It shouldn’t be in the least surprising that our culture is, by default, friendlier and more outgoing as a result.
Wear a Yankee’s cap down the street in Boston. That should set you straight. Philadelphia will do in a pinch.
Why not?
Why wouldn’t we be? It costs nothing to be pleasant and may brighten someone’s day. (Also, if you’re not friendly, you’re seen as a jerk.)
Why shouldn’t we be?
Because from a young age we were taught to be polite and have manners. I think the bigger question is: Why isn’t everyone else as friendly as us?
Because life is too short to be otherwise.
Life sucks. Why would I contribute to making it worse, when I could instead choose to make it better?
It doesn’t cost anything to be friendly and doesn’t accomplish anything to be a jerk, so why wouldn’t we be friendly? Why are other countries unfriendly?
Why are non-Americans not so friendly?
But seriously: general opinion I’ve seen is that the way our country was formed – everyone an immigrant, not knowing the language of their neighbor, settling undeveloped lands, seeking a new start, etc. – created a need for people to interact and be friendly with the people around them to survive and prosper. That developed into the culture we have today.
It costs nothing to be pleasant, and I am genuinely interested in other people.
Note that this doesn’t equate to deep connections with everyone. There are guys who I worked with for a decade or more, who I still meet for golf once a week, but I have never been to their homes.
Canadians are also friendly. I think a better question would be why are other countries so rude?
FAQ 11: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/70n5hu/faq_11_why_are_americans_so_friendly_with/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/70n5hu/faq_11_why_are_americans_so_friendly_with/)
It developed out of necessity and these days has just become a social convention where it’s rude not to.
GET OFF MY LAWN!
Most of us prefer to get along with others. We teach that skill in kindergarten!
It’s much easier and more pleasant to be friendly than the alternative
A part of it is that in early America there were a lot of people from a lot of places, many who spoke different languages. So they smiled to show they didn’t have hostile intent.
On top of that, it’s fine to hate the Dutch if everyone you know is British. However, if your next-door neighbors consist of a Dutchman, a Frenchman, and a German you either have to learn to get along or there will be blood on the streets. There were many who did choose option B. However most of them didn’t live long enough to influence the culture.
Life would be lonely and boring otherwise.
Would you rather people be mean?
It’s a sliding scale. There are places that are a lot more friendly than us and places that are a lot less friendly than us. But we’re closer to the friendly side. To answer why . . . who knows. I do think a lot of us are genuinely interested in other people.
The USA is quite frontier nation, mistakenly thought of as “individualistic” when in fact many Americans affirm being responsible for your own life and not looking for government to take care of your every whim. Coupled with the fact the USA is the richest, most powerful, most fun nation on earth with the highest standard of living imaginable.
We’re a nation made up of a lot of very different strangers put all together. Friendliness was/is necessary to make any of it work.
I saw something recently about the “American smile”- saying that we or our very recent ancestors lived among people who didn’t speak the same language, so big facial expressions became our way of neighbors building relationships and getting along. That sounds about right to me.
(I’m from a part of the country known for “unfriendliness”- but we still smile to communicate with people whose language we might not speak)
It costs me nothing to be friendly and often it’s a net benefit.
Kindness or at least politeness is emphasized in our upbringing.
Because it sucks even being around such miserable people.
Alexis Tocqueville in his *Democracy in America* (Tocqueville was a French government official sent to America in the early 1800s to “spy” on the new nation) noted how Americans had an open and casual manner to strangers, which he found a stark contrast to the hierarchical and stiff formalities of Europeans. He thought it stemmed from the overall “equality of conditions” between Americans, where no one had aristocratic titles.
Because fuck you that’s why.
Is it just Americans though? Canadians and Mexicans are very friendly too. Actually I would say like the entirety of North and South America has a culture of being both loud and friendly lol
that depends on where you live in America too
Do you want us to be mean and cranky and grumpy instead?
We’re friendly until you go onto one of our local town facebook groups. Those are cesspits.
Next post: “Why are Americans so unfriendly?”
The bigger question would be why are non-Americans (and people from the east coast) so rude?
Why are non-Americans not so friendly?
Why not be a decent human being, it messes up my stomic being an asshole
No reason not to be? Lol. Why would you want to be a jerk all the time? Sounds exhausting.
I’m from the South. It’s just our nature!
Idk, I guess. It’s just normal! Makes normal outings fun bc you never know who you’re going to meet! I don’t get why many Europeans are so antisocial, haha
The real question is why isn’t everyone else? It doesn’t cost a thing to be polite and pleasant.