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Infographics: Courtesy Financesonline.com

A comparison of Americans’ weird habits

, April 16, 2014

By David Adelman and Alex Hillsberg
America is facing its biggest threat to its existence. Not terrorism or the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but from mobile phones.
 
A survey published by Statista last February revealed that more Americans would rather live without sex than without their phone, David Adelman and Alex Hillsberg from Financesonline.com.
 
It’s one of those odd insights about us that cast doubt to our collective ‘superior’ perception of our culture over the rest of the world.
 
Inspired by this social shock, I started tinkering with other survey results that might corroborate my armchair findings. 
 
True enough, a pattern emerged. Had I not known I was reading social insights about us—Americans—I’d have easily thought these behavioral quirks are by some communities far deep in the Congolese jungle.
 
Imagine a society where an increasing number of its members would rather sleep (just sleep) with a different mammal and put that in the context of an increasing number of people who believe living with another person is an option. It’s not a natural evolutionary trend. That’s us. 
 
Fifty-eight per cent of Americans sleep with their cat or dog, and 27 per cent of are living today in one-person household, a significant increase from 17 per cent in the seventies.
 
I’ve compiled other revealing behavioural facts about us that are quite funny. The French may exalt their ratatouille and the Chinese their Szechuan chicken to visitors. Both dishes are rooted in the heritage of their place of origin. 
 
On the other hand, we Americans are proud of our barbecue; it is the top American food we will recommend to tourists. Surely, we can do better than suggesting meat cooked over charcoal as a national cuisine, I mean, even Cro-Magnons knew barbecue.
 
In the study, ‘The Weirdest People in the World,’ behavioural scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada rebut the traditional scientific theory that all humans have similar psychological traits. 
 
It turned out that Americans are somewhat isolated in liking the idea of getting the bigger slice of the pie, a trait frowned upon in other cultures. The researchers even labeled Americans as “weird,” meaning, different.
 
The study created a buzz in anthropology.  A review of the top six psychological journals in 2008 revealed that nearly 96 per cent of subjects in psychological studies were Westerners and about 70 per cent of them were Americans. In short, most behavioural studies used subjects from just 12 per cent of the world’s population.
 
That should explain why we think other people are odd. To put everything in perspective, we may be the biggest member in the bird kingdom, but other birds may see the ostrich as strikingly odd. - TradeArabia News Service



Tags: America | habit |

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