How do you measure rudeness?
Sure, you know it when you see it (or worse experience it.) But can rudeness be broken down to the numbers? If so, where do you start?
In swearwords? In bad tips and worse attitudes? Or maybe it’s the melody of honking that results from a rude driver’s disregard for basic traffic laws.
Here’s the best of the worst of the states:
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- Virginia
- New York
- California
- Washington
- New Jersey
- Utah
- Illinois
- Ohio
How was this determined?
- Percent of rude drivers
- Average tip
- Amount of cursing to customer service agents
- How rude the rest of the country finds the state
First we looked at the percentage of rude drivers (defined as drivers with failure to yield violations, failure to stop violations, improper backing, passing where prohibited, tailgating, street racing, and hit-and-runs on their record) according to Insurify. Hear that honking? They think you’re a buffoon.
We then turned to the average tip in each state according to Square. Tipping is an unenforced social custom, failure to meet it is pretty rude.
From there, we looked at LivePerson’s ranking of the states where users are most likely to use profanity to poor, helpless customer service reps.
Finally, we turned to a YouGov survey of 75,000 Americans to find what percent of respondents thought each state’s residents were “more rude” than most other Americans. After all, if everyone thinks you’re a jerk, you just might be.
You’ll see that Wyoming ranks #13. That might be partially my fault, as I seem to not be the kindest to telemarketers and customer service representatives on the phone. Sorry.
Worst states to live
What about states that are awful to live in? According to RoadSnacks.com, New Mexico ranks as the worst state to live in, taking into account crime rate, education, social programs, economy, and pollution. Overall, New Mexico ranked dead last, by a ways, in terms of worst states.
