Readers Digest has announced that
New York City is the politest of large cities worldwide. This unbelievable development won The Big Apple tops in courtesy against other largest cities in each of 36 countries.
How did tough-talking New Yorkers defeat Toronto, Auckland and Stockholm? Let me hold the door for you as I tell you in Extended.
Researchers used three tests to determine the kindest city of them all. First was the "door test," where random individuals were given an opportunity to hold a door open for someone. Then, the "document drop," which was not a pickpocketing technique but a test to see if a city's denizens would help pick up scattered papers.
Finally, cashiers were graded on how often they thanked purchasers for buying something.
New York, with 80% positive ratings, was able to best the following cities based on the three tests:
- Zurich
- Toronto
- Berlin
- Sao Paulo
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Auckland
- Warsaw
- Mexico City
- Stockholm
- Budapest
- Madrid
- Prague
- Vienna
- Buenos Aires
- Johannesburg
- Lisbon
- London
- Paris
- Amsterdam
- Helsinki
- Manila
- Milan
- Sydney
- Bangkok
- Hong Kong
- Ljubljana
- Jakarta
- Taipei
- Moscow
- Singapore
- Seoul
- Kuala Lumpur
- Bucharest
- Mumbai
Now if anyone can explain why Reader's Digest neglected to send their testers to Tokyo, I would love to know.
But seriously... New York, the most polite? New York, home of New York CPR? (Get up, get up, you wanna effing DIE?)
Something's fishy, and it ain't the Fulton Fish Market.