Incivility is a Virus

A study carried out in 2002 by the National Institute on Media and the Family and researchers from Brigham Young University and St. Mary's University confirmed that “the rude and crude behavior in movies and on television is mirrored in the way children who are heavy viewers of violent media treat one another.” Sixteen years later an article from NBC news described the effects of ever-growing rudeness in American society: “‘Incivility is a virus,’ Christine Porath, PhD, Associate Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace, says. ‘You touch it and unfortunately we often don’t realize we pass it on to others.’ Porath’s research shows that when people experience more rudeness, they are less motivated, they actually cut back on the amount of effort they put into a certain task, and they are far more likely to leave an organization compared with organizations where there is less rudeness.” Meg Thomas, in an Out of the Box Training, “Teasing and Bullying and Being Left Out,” explains that unfortunately rude behavior is also happening more among young children: “Teasing, bullying, and being excluded from friendship groups aren’t childhood traumas soon recovered from …teasing and bullying can have serious consequences for children and they need our help to learn how to handle them effectively.”

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