Rudeness has been on the rise across the world for years. According to a study in 2022, 76% of people experience rudeness at least once a month. That figure was 55% ten years ago
How often do you find yourself listening to someone else’s TikTok videos on the bus? How many times in the past month has someone barged into you as you tried to get off a train? Are you noticing more people propping their shoe-clad feet onto the seat next to you?
If you’ve experienced any of the above, or other habits that are winding you up when you travel on the train, bus, plane, tram or tube, then you are not just going through a grumpy patch, and you’re not alone.
Rudeness has been on the rise across the world for years. According to a study in 2022, 76% of people experience rudeness at least once a month. That figure was 55% ten years ago.
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts or examples of rudeness on public transport in the comments below or by emailing us [email protected]
Research conducted by Monash political scientists Dr Steven Zech and Dr Matteo Bonotti suggests there has been an incremental increase in incivility in society. This tends to be the case after what they call “global stressful events”. The coronavirus pandemic is a major one of these. So too, it might be argued, was the 2008 financial crash and the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Dr Rodney Luster, a psychotherapist who has written on the topic of rudeness, believes that the “collective trauma” of the pandemic has kept us in a perpetual state of fight or flight. “How long has it been since the world experienced something earth-shaking? It created this primitive instinct to survive and to perceive threats,” he says.
Professor Lucas Walsh, director of Monash’s Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, argues that specific events aren’t the only cause. The academic believes that the changed nature of our society – more diverse and individualised – is making it hard for people to share values and mutual understanding of the common good. Without this, people rub up against each other more.
University of Florida professor and rudeness expert Amir Erez has published several academic studies on the topic and argues that the contagion spreads more in cities, just like the flu or Covid. “Rudeness acts like the cold virus. It spreads from one person to others without people necessarily knowing that they are infected and spreading it to other people,” Professor Erez told the Standard.
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While Network Rail told the Mirror that it doesn’t collect stats on instances of rudeness towards staff, it has previously claimed that out of 10 of its workers in the biggest stations in its Southern Region have suffered abuse, including verbal abuse and physical assaults.
In the skies, things are also bad. A video circulated this week showing a huge brawl on a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Ibiza, which had to be diverted. Things allegedly kicked off when one passenger refused to hand over his bottle of vodka when a member of staff asked. There have been many such instances of fights or arguments breaking out on budget airlines in recent months and years.
A Ryanair pilot told the Mirror that most staff at the airline backed a passenger limit on drinking at airports, which was floated by the company’s boss last month. They said: “I have to agree with O’Leary (on this very rare occasion) that alcohol consumption at airports needs to be severely limited. But I would go further than him, to say that alcohol consumption ON THE AIRCRAFT should also be limited, if not BANNED altogether.”
What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts or examples of rudeness on public transport in the comments below or by emailing us [email protected]