How Rude! New Study Finds Michigan to be One of the Rudest States
You hear about "Midwest Nice"... but maybe we're not so nice in the Mitten State?
If you're not familiar with the term, according to Urbanplains.com,
Midwest Nice is the cultural stereotype applied to the behavior of the people in the Midwest as they are known for being unusually polite, reserved, or passive-aggressive.
Think of always feeling the need to courtesy wave if someone let's you into traffic and immediately saying "Ope! Sorry!" if you bump into someone...
So how did this new study determine how polite each state is? Wordfinder analyzed Google Trends search data from each state to pinpoint which parts of America most often search the web using polite words and phrases like please, thank you, thanks, excuse me, beg your pardon, sir, and cheers...
Seems like a weird way to measure politeness if you ask me... You're telling me people are out there Googling, "Beg your pardon, what's the weather like today, good sir?"
Apparently in Montana they are. Yep. The study found Montana to be the most polite state, with more than 270,000 searches per 100,000 residents containing polite terms.
Here's the full top ten most polite states in the U.S.
- Montana
- Vermont
- Alabama
- Minnesota
- Delaware
- Wyoming
- Arkansas
- Utah
- Hawaii
- Idaho
So how did the Mitten State fare? Well, we're not the rudest state, but close.
According to the study, California is the rudest, with only 10 searches per 100,000 residents containing polite terms.
Michigan came in at the No. 5 rudest, with just 127 searches per 100,000 residents with polite words.
Here's the rest of the ten least polite states:
- California
- Kansas
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Pennsylvania
- Oregon
- Massachusetts
- Florida
- West Virginia
This comes after Michigan was ranked one of the angriest states in the country too...