Every culture in the world has its own quirks and traditions. Every country has different cultural ideals that make them unique.
However, our culture may seem odd to people in other countries. The Pew Research Center did some surveys that point out just how different we are from European countries.
One survey question included this statement: “Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control.” The survey asked people to say if they think this is true or false. Fifty-seven percent of Americans believed this statement to be false. The United Kingdom had similar responses, but many European countries differ.
Americans are also more religious than countries in Europe. Seventy-five percent of Americans polled said religion is at least “somewhat” important to them. The European country with the highest percentage of religious people was Poland at twenty-eight percent.
Americans also often disagree with Europeans on topics of morality. American’s tend to be a little more prudish on sex. Around thirty percent of us believe that sex between unmarried adults is unacceptable. In England, that number is only thirteen percent. France had the lowest score of six percent.
When it comes to adultery, eighty-four percent of Americans find extramarital affairs morally unacceptable. France came in lowest at forty-seven percent.
When it comes to homosexuality, thirty-seven percent of people in the United States believe that homosexuality is unacceptable. Only fourteen percent of French people believe that. In Britain, only seventeen percent of people surveyed think homosexuality is unacceptable.
As far as divorce, twenty-two percent of Americans find divorce unacceptable. Only nine percent of British people believe that. France came in the low again with only five percent. Spain is the lowest with four percent of people who believe that divorce is unacceptable.
For more on the differences between North American and British culture, see the video below:
Featured image by Matheus Almelda via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
