Canadians just as good or bad as Americans?

[Alpha]

VS.

 

TORONTO -- Ask any Canadian to define the typical Canuck and among the descriptions proffered is sure to be: "We're not like Americans."

 

After all, Americans are brash, arrogant and aggressive. We Canadians, on the other hand, are polite, modest and somewhat introverted.

 

We're as different from our neighbours to the south as, well, beavers are from bald eagles.

 

Aren't we?

 

Not according to a study of national personalities, which found that this time-honoured perception of our oh-so-unique Canadian psyche -- and other cultures' stereotypes of themselves -- are in fact just so much hooey.

 

"These stereotypes are as Canadians see themselves and Americans as they see themselves," said Robert McCrae of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, a principal investigator of the study on national personalities around the world.

 

"Canadians think they're extremely agreeable; the Americans think they're very disagreeable," he said. "Canadians believe that they're very calm and not irritable, very even-tempered, whereas Americans think they're more anxious and hostile.

 

"The fact is Canadians and Americans have almost identical average personality traits."

 

In a measure of five main areas of personality, covering a total of 30 traits, Canadians and their U.S. cousins fell roughly in the middle. Not only that, but they weren't all that different from other cultures around the globe, researchers found.

 

The study, published in the latest issue of Science, collected data through personality questionnaires given to thousands of people living in 49 countries.

 

Over and over, stereotypes about different nationalities emerged, but all were left wanting.

 

"These are very interesting sociological phenomena," McCrae said. "They get made into myths and they turn up in literature and in songs and in jokes and kind of have a life of their own."

 

Take the Brits, for example, whose national character is typically viewed as reserved and stalwart.

 

"The English showed the worst agreement in the entire set between the stereotype and the measured personality," said McCrae. "The stereotype of the English is that they're very reserved, whereas as in fact English are extroverts.

 

"And English think that they're relatively conventional and closed, but compared to most people in the world, they're pretty open to experience."

 

Germany was one example in which at least part of the stereotype matched reality, he said. "Germans think that they're conscientious and industrious and they measured out as conscientious and industrious."

 

Argentines believe they're a nation of disagreeable folk, and that reputation is pervasive throughout Latin America. But Argentines scored as average on the agreeableness scale.

 

McCrae noted that one Canadian researcher, upon seeing the results, said: " `Well, the Canadians are not going to like this story, because they really want to believe that they are much nicer than Americans.'

 

"I think that shows that at least one of the functions that stereotypes serve is to assert a national identity. We want to distinguish ourselves from Americans, so we'll invent some kind of difference and exaggerate it, and in this case it has to do with things like agreeableness," he said of the so-called Canadian identity.

 

Paul Trapnell, a professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg, agreed that claiming particular national character traits can support certain motives: differentiating a population from other cultures and building its self-esteem.

 

"So we'll try to see ourselves as different from Americans and the differences we'll latch onto are the differences that also serve our desire to think good about ourselves," said Trapnell, one of three Canadian researchers who contributed data to the study.

 

What he found interesting was how homogenous the notion of the "typical Canuck" was across the country.

 

"The views that persons in Vancouver have about Canadians are very similar to the views that Nova Scotians have about Canadians," Trapnell said. "So we do possess a somewhat loosely organized but shared perception of what our national character is like, even though that shared perception doesn't turn out to be a real one."

 

What another country does on the world stage or on home soil may also contribute to national stereotypes, suggested psychologist Delroy Paulhus of the University of British Columbia, who also took part in the study.

 

"Canadians confuse typical Americans with their country's foreign policy, which seems belligerent," Paulhus said by e-mail. "Or Canadians extrapolate the higher rate of crime in the U.S. to infer typical character."

 

Whatever the reasons, typecasting an entire people can be dangerous, the authors say, leading to prejudice, discrimination and persecution.

 

"Clearly it tells us that we need to be very cautious about making generalizations about groups of people, any kind of groups of people," McCrae said. "Because often those generalizations are unfounded.

 

"Instead, what we have to do is remind ourselves that we're dealing with individuals, and regardless of what their nationality or their age or their gender, we should look at their personality as it is in themselves."

© Canadian Press 2005

So what do you think?

 

News URL: http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?...a7-e35623a8121a

Credits: ArcadeAtHome.com & Terry Bogardx

[solidius23]

both of our cultures have crazies and mellow people. stupid and smart people. ect ect people need to stop classifying a whole country of people by the actions for a few idiots from it.

[iq_132]

 

Word.

[Agozer]

I just saw Bwoling for Columbine on TV yesterday. It didn't give a good picture about americans. But then again, I have no problems with the US nor Canada.

 

WTF is going on, eh?

[Weirdy]

I just saw Bwoling for Columbine on TV yesterday. It didn't give a good picture about americans. But then again, I have no problems with the US nor Canada.

 

WTF is going on, eh?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*shrugs*

 

Michael Moore is a good Entertainer though

[ken_cinder]

both of our cultures have crazies and mellow people. stupid and smart people. ect ect people need to stop classifying a whole country of people by the actions for a few idiots from it.

 

Unfortunately the stereotype stems from the fact that in the US, it's loudmouthed idiots who seem to get the most "air-time" for voicing their opinions etc.

Up here we tend to keep our idiots quiet by just plain beating them into being quiet........so it appears we are nice and less outspoken. Don't be fooled! I'm one of the idiots, they just haven't caught me yet!

[Weirdy]

H Punch's response at Havoc Forums totally owns al other ones

 

It kinda irks me about how everyone and their dog is piling on the US right now. I'm not going to sit here and say everything we've done is right and just. Nor am I going to say that everything that appears bad on the surface to be wrong. There's WAY more that goes on behind closed doors than most of us can even to pretend to phatom. I imagine to myself what if we left everything alone for just one year? One year of bringing every soldier home from every foreign country. One year of absolutely no handouts of money or services to other countries. One year of not sharing information. One year of no disaster aide. How would people see the US then? The US isn't perfect, nor is there any country that is. But, the US does many, many works of good. People in other countries claim that the people in the US don't see the whole picture of the world. I say how are you any different?

[Wizard]

Unfortunately the stereotype stems from the fact that in the US, it's loudmouthed idiots who seem to get the most "air-time" for voicing their opinions etc.

Up here we tend to keep our idiots quiet by just plain beating them into being quiet........so it appears we are nice and less outspoken. Don't be fooled! I'm one of the idiots, they just haven't caught me yet!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes and yes.

 

I have been evading the beaters for some time now and I am still under the rader.

 

 

P.S. Also, when it comes to hockey, my team owns your team.

 

P.S.S. Why are the Kings winning...at all.

[Swann]

I'm Canadian... I don't really care about what kind of country I live in or what kind of country America is... although I am anti-bush... but for my own reasons

[Elazul Yagami]

I just saw Bwoling for Columbine on TV yesterday. It didn't give a good picture about americans. But then again, I have no problems with the US nor Canada.

 

WTF is going on, eh?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*shrugs*

 

Michael Moore is a good Entertainer though

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

i did check up on the stats he used.

they're real.

[Weirdy]

I just saw Bwoling for Columbine on TV yesterday. It didn't give a good picture about americans. But then again, I have no problems with the US nor Canada.

 

WTF is going on, eh?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*shrugs*

 

Michael Moore is a good Entertainer though

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

i did check up on the stats he used.

they're real.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you....are aware that he lied about his place of birth right?