The Huffington Post may be a popular site with good articles on occasion,  their health section is often filled with ‘woo’ (i.e. articles with little to no scientific basis). Generally I ignore these, as I don’t need the stress and irritation. However a recent article by Dr. Douglas Fields entitled “Rudeness is a Neurotoxin”  has compelled me to write, for two reasons:

  1. The comments are closed for the article, thus preventing anyone to take issue with it on the site.
  2. It compares the social standards of Japan and the US, therefore making it within the purview of this blog.

Dr. Fields makes the case that modern Americans are rude (not going to argue with that) and Japanese are polite (also generally true) and then makes the case that the rudeness of Americans is detrimental to society, and that we would be a lot better off to be polite, the way the Japanese are.

I get the impression that Dr. Fields knows very little about Japanese Culture. Granted, I’m by no means, an expert, but it seems that he is missing a lot of information in that article. He sounds like someone who vacationed there, rather than someone who actually deeply experienced what it means to live in the Japanese culture.

More after the fold…

His piece begins:

Americans are rude. I say this not to preach, which is neither my right nor my intention, but as a scientist, a developmental neuroscientist. My concern about American rudeness relates to my scientific research and knowledge about the development of the human brain. My conclusion comes from a recent trip to Japan, and from a reminder of times past, the death of actress Barbara Billingsley, who died Oct. 16, 2010.

Hence it seems that he is building his argument from a vacation. He continues with this after a romp through 1950′s television:

The contrast between the brash, comparatively disrespectful behavior of Americans today and the courtesy, formal manners, civil discourse, polite behavior and respect for others regardless of social status that is evident in Japanese society is striking. The contrast hits an American like a splash of cold water upon disembarking the airplane in Japan, because it clashes so starkly with our behavior. For an American, Japanese manners and courtesy must be experienced.

I can’t say that I disagree with that, but again, it’s a surface level analysis. He seems to miss the idea that that politeness equals niceness, or that there is real sincerity behind it, rather than a societal expectation. Dr. Fields seems to believe otherwise:

The formal “Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma’am,” is not a showy embellishment in the military; strict respect and formal polite discourse are the hub of the wheel in any effective and cohesive social structure. True, many chafe under a system of behavior that is overly rigid, as do many young Japanese, but my point is that these polite and formalized behaviors reduce stress in a stressful situation that arises from being an individual in a complex society. Stress is a neurotoxin, especially during development of a child’s brain.

Does Dr. Fields also feel that forced deference where it is nor deserved nor earned also cause stress? In the situation described above, it could also be more stressful to defer when a person is definitely incorrect or in the wrong.

Also, he seems to be ignorant of Japanese culture, in general. Because the society is based on consensus, it is acceptable to question any idea, if it seems incorrect, even if it is a child questioning the actions of an adult, which is generally frowned upon here.

The stress resulting from conforming to norms could be argued as being more stressful than the stress from the potential of initiating conflict.  The latter being an occasional short term issue, while the former is a chronic and constant issue.

Does the author think that Japanese don’t feel stress? Or that simply by being polite it negates it?

If, by his claim, Japan has a less stressful environment, by being polite, then:

The links above are just a sample. a simple google search will uncover many more examples…

I think that Dr. Fields needs to learn a lot more about Japanese culture before making such grandiose claims. As the Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, he should understand that making such simplistic correlations between cultures with out first having a deeper understanding of the expectations at play, and the differences on the macro and micro levels makes such comparisons moot.

Japan and the US are about as opposite as two cultures can be, yet we both suffer from many of the same problems, albeit in different ways. It is a mistake to suggest that the benefits of one can transfer to the other, since there are many other issues at play beneath the surface. For example, it’s common not to lock your door in many parts of Japan, would it be wise to suggest that to Americans, simply because it works there? Of course not. For those type of changes to occur, you need a culture-wide change on many levels, amongst the totality of the society for it to work. Things like that don’t happen overnight.

Overall, though Dr. Field’s post is limited and ill informed, I appreciate what he wants to convey, and on the whole, agree that a more polite and sincere society may be beneficial to everyone, his evaluation leaves much to be desired, and it would suit him well to understand the culture he’s comparing us to, before making the comparison.

One other note… I lost some respect for him, as the commenting section on the article was shut down. To me, that seems to suggest that he was not open to discussion or he could not personally handle “rude” or any other deconstruction or negative comments on his article. By Japanese standards, that would be considered “Weak”.

There is also a difference between how foreigners are treated socially than native Japanese. Foreigners are expected not to know the customs of Japan and are essentially given a “pass”  and are excused for improper behavior. This makes understanding the culture more difficult for the casual traveler.