The FINANCIAL -- Alice Cooper said it best: “No more Mr. nice guy.”
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 76% of Adults say Americans are becoming more rude and less civilized. Just 12% say they’re becoming kinder and gentler, while just as many (12%) are not sure.
The number of Americans who believe their fellow citizens are getting ruder is up from 69% this time last year , but shows no change from September 2009 .
Perhaps technology has something to do with it. A majority of adults (57%) say it’s rude for someone sitting next to you in public to be talking on their cell phone. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree, and another 10% are undecided. In August of last year, Americans were evenly divided on this question.
The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 31-August 1, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Seventy percent (70%) say Americans are more rude to sales personnel or people waiting on them than they were 10 years ago, up eight points from last year. Sixteen percent (16%) disagree with that assessment, while 14% are not sure.
Conversely, 61% say sales and service personnel are ruder to customers than they were 10 years ago. Twenty-six percent (26%) don’t believe they’re ruder. Another 13% are undecided. These findings show little change from August 2010.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Americans say they’ve confronted someone over their rude behavior in public, up seven points from the previous survey. Thirty-eight percent (38%) have never confronted someone about their rude behavior.
Most Americans across the demographic board believe their fellow citizens are becoming ruder and less civilized.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of men have confronted someone in public about their rude behavior, while 52% of women have done the same. Americans under the age of 30 are far more inclined to confront someone regarding their behavior compared to their elders.
Voter confidence in the future of the country has returned to the lowest levels found in nearly five years of surveys. At the same time, Just 14% of voters now say the country is heading in the right direction . That’s the lowest measured since November 2, 2008, just before Barack Obama was elected president.
www.rasmussenreports.com
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