A new Canadian study finds a plethora of unregretful — but very polite — murderers and other occupants of death row in prisons in the region of the United States of America knowns as “The South”: “Honor on Death Row — Apology, Remorse, and the Culture of Honor in the U.S. South,” Judy Eaton, SAGE […]
Tag: politeness
Holding the door open for others – the darkside?
Back in 2011 Improbable drew attention to the ubiquitous (though at the time somewhat under-investigated) social phenomenon of ‘Door Holding’ see : Etiquette and effort. At the time. a research team from Penn State University, US, proposed that ‘Door Holding’ may have evolved because its perceived effort-saving efficiency might be uplifting for society. (press release […]
Politeness: Is there an East-West divide?
“East is east and west is west“, a simple statement, does not logically exclude the possibility that east is also west and that west is also east. Geoffrey Leech [pictured here] makes part of the case, politely, in his study: “Politeness: Is there an East-West divide?” Geoffrey Leech, Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture, […]
On the Impoliteness of Trolls
A new study tries to sharpen our understanding of the highly verbal parasites known as trolls. Trolls – call them internet trolls, if you like – are in some ways quite similar to Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan parasite that causes malaria in large numbers of human beings. Both kinds of parasite are maddeningly difficult to suppress. They […]