Why the farmers, and people from rural district (villages)

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Why the farmers, and people from rural district (villages) are generally nicer than people from cities?

Hi i'm from Poland i'm 28 years old and have Asperger.

I've never worked, recently I was a volunteer at a charitable foundation, we sell a variety of paper products, such as calendars, notebooks, coloring books, puzzles, profits from the sale go to the rescue of children with severe congenital, I like that I can help others and gain valuable work experience.

However, I noticed that the people of Polish towns and villages are more friendly and open to helping others than those living in large Polish cities, despite the fact that farmers are sometimes poorer than people in larger cities.

I wonder if this is a characteristic only for Poland whether or this correlation exists in other countries.

I live in the countryside, but I have also lived in cities. I find that people in the countryside seem to be friendlier. I think that it is due to the fact that you see peolpe far less frequently, and when you do see someone, it is probably someone you will see again. In the city however, you're constantly around people and people tend to ignore each other.

An example is when you're walking down the street. If it's a rural area, here peolpe are much more likely to say "hello" or smile. In the city, you will be ignored, and if you say hello, they will think you're some sort of psychopath.

Though I live neither in a rural town nor a big city, that kind of mindset does exist here in the U.S., though there are lots of people everywhere that would be willing to help with a charitable cause.

I think the reason may be that those people who live in the big cities have never had to live paycheck to paycheck before and see no reason to help someone less fortunate out. The cities are also very fast paced places and I bet that a lot of them had places they needed/wanted to get to.

It might be that in rural environments there are higher levels of social capital and higher levels of mutual trust then in cities. This of course raises the question why this is so. And there can be multiple answers to that question.

One answer might be that those in cities have greater access to state provided services and have lowered need to relay on their community, but it has also been suggested that those services came in to existence to as a metaphorical bandage for the damage done by (economic) liberalism to the more organic communitarian structures.

Second answer might be that in cities people are more packed together and as a consequence withdraw more in to their inner worlds as a form of physiological protection since it has become harder to physical withdraw one selves from people one does not want to interact with. And there can be some factors that enhance need for withdrawal from social interaction with others.

Now for your second question, I do not think that is something that is mainly a Polish phenomenon, but does also exist in other countries. Alto it might vary depending on the type of soil said farming community works, at least from what I have read in News from Somewhere by Roger Scruton, where he writes about his experiences about settling in the countryside.

Just to add to a bevy of already good answers, in big cities there is more congestion and more demands on peoples' time. Schedules become overcrowded with things like going to different activities, whereas there isn't as much in small towns and so people take more time for you. I'm also American and I notice that a lot, too. The frenzied pace of life does have an impact.

Also, in rural communities in the U.S., at least in my state (Great Lakes region), there is more emphasis on church ctivities, and those who truly practice their faith are more likely to be friendly and outgoing to others. (Yeah, you have to watch for those who jsut pretend, but that's true in everything.) The Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have done unto you") is easier to practice when you don't have crowds of people all in one tiny space, people cutting you off in traffic, a constant barrage of noise, etc..

Another reason i've even heard from farmers is that caring for animals teaches you from an early age to be more considerate toward humans. However, if that's true, bigger city pet owners should be generally nicer than non-pet owners, and I'm not sure if that's true or not.

I live in the Southern US, and it's true here, on average people tend to be friendlier and more willing to help each other out in rural communities.

Most rural farming communities, wherever they are in the world, have a long history of having to rely on their neighbors for help for survival. Say for instance if a family's home or barn burned down, back when there were no insurance companies or government agencies to bail people out of disasters...they just had to rebuild the best they could, and they usually couldn't do it alone. The entire community would have come together to help that family rebuild.

I think it depends a lot on the history of a community, how it was settled, how insulated it has been from outside help and resources, and how those people have survived best over the centuries.

It's pretty true here in the Vancouver area of BC, Canada.

People in the city live fast paced hectic lives. Many are immigrants and are a bit fearful of others they don't know, so are guarded and less friendly. Many are business people who live stressful intense faster paced lives. Many are type-A go go go types. etc. There are plenty of reasons people from the city are a little more stressed and less friendly because of it.

Whereas people from the valley.. the farmers etc, while they work hard, they live a slower paced simpler life. They also benefit from being in wide open green spaces. I think they're also friendlier to one another because there are fewer people out there so they're not so "peopled out" by being in close proximity to so many others. They also may have to depend on other locals more for things/help etc whereas people in the city have everything and every service available to them around the clock practically. Then there are other considerations, like light pollution - it's darker in the rural areas and people get more restful sleep, and likely behave better because of it. So many contributing factors.

In rural areas, people tend to know each other. They may have a lot of family nearby, and you're going to see the same people in multiple places which can forge a stronger social network. You see the same people at jobs, school functions, and grocery stores so it becomes unlikely you aren't going to engage with them.

Well I think every area is different. Our local city compared to here? The villagers are not as open, they are very critical of same sex couples, ethnic groups, anyone who is even slightly different. But there is less crime here than the city. When I use to stand at the bus stop in the city random ppl would hurl abuse at us waiting for no reason. And yeah the lack of drive by shootings is great.

But, what the person above said is very interesting. When I lived in Vancouver/Canada the people were amazing. I could not believe the temperament of people and their personalities, you know, bar the occasional person.

When I came to the UK I was so sad. People here are horrible. They are abusive. People judge so much and are not so friendly. This is not true of everyone but so many people are just not nice. I miss living in Canada and wish my partner did not live in the UK. And don't get me started on customer service, man our customer service stinks here.

Anyhow that is my own personal opinion and no one has to belive it.

I've been wanting to say this, but, held back because everyone was so complimentary of the rural folks.
I couldn't wait to leave the rural areas because anyone who was different was made to feel 'less than', narrow-minded, old-fashioned and bigoted.
Sure, they were polite enough during daylight hours, but, when I swing into town with my then-boyfriend to pick up my paycheck from a call-in gig at the company where my mother worked, and she later called and told me not to do that again, because he was black and her manager said the customers didn't like having him there.
Really?
He came from a nice, affluent, educated, well-traveled family and the people that were uncomfortable were trashy and most probably had criminal records of some type (most likely drunk driving, they like to do that out in the stix).

No thanks.

Despite the crime, I do think St. Louisans of any type are really polite and friendly. Obviously, it's not perfect here, we've made the news for some of it, but, I prefer it to the rural areas just because people are more open-minded and not stuck in their ways in the cities.
And, while I travel to rural areas for recreation sometime, everyone is nice to me... I know there are places I couldn't take my gay or ethnic friends because they wouldn't be welcome.

It just makes me sad.

^on that note, yeah, people are much more gay friendly In the city (Vancouver) than the suburbs or valley.. however, it's still pretty good overall compared to other parts of the country or other cities around the world. I remember seeing an article about an LGBT friendly cafe opening up in Abbotsford, which is in the bible belt part of the valley.. so yeah, even our more rural folks are coming around to being more LGBT accepting and inclusive in their lives. We have it pretty good here.

Meanwhile, there are some places where I wouldn't want to let on to the fact that I'm gay due to how people may react. Sure, I may be stereotyping others.. but if they're a bunch of rough around the edges tough guys in the middle of nowhere in some small backwoods town, well, I'm not going to take any chances. Fortunately I don't look or come across as gay and can conceal it completely. No one knows unless I tell them.

Mmmhmm, exactly.

My husband has long hair, and we've had problems in some backwards places where people hassle us because they believe we're lesbians, but, then they're all smiles and charm when they see he's a man.
I tell him it's not funny when he laughs... what would those men do to us if they caught women out alone?
As a straight, white, educated, catholic, male who loves sports, he's not used to being persecuted or having to worry about his safety and didn't even know the term 'corrective rape' until I told it to him.

Don't know why these guys feel it's their right and obligation to police what other people do, but, it's effing scary that it happens so much and by people that are so normal looking and 'friendly' within THEIR communities.

I find rural communities can be hit and miss...sometimes people do seem kinder and have a better sense of community and willingness to help their fellow community members. But there can also be a sense of cliquishness, so if you're unlucky enough to end up in one where you don't fit in for whatever reason and become ostracized...so then it turns into you being left out of this sense of community and kind behavior from fellow members of said community. Also if you have a lot of heavily religious people sometimes they can be very judgemental....I could probably look it up but a while back in some small town apparently some kid either got life in prison or the death penalty based on very lacking evidence and the fact they enjoyed 'heavy metal' music and thus must have been the 'satanist' responsible for some murder when there was more evidence pointing to I think maybe the step-dad or something of the individual murdered.

As for cities haven't spent too much time in a lot of very large ones...but where I live is a kinda small sized city, at least the downtown part but the surrounding area and suburbs stretch out pretty far, it is however the biggest city in my state. Anyways it really seems like peoples behavior/friendliness varies depending on what area of the city you are in. There are some pretty snobbish areas where people will look down their nose at you if you look at all like a punk, metalhead, goth or any counter culture sort of thing...or like you're lacking in income. There are some kinda shady areas where you want to watch your back, and there are more laid back areas where people are rather friendly and its not uncommon people who don't even know each other might start talking and end up hanging out in the park smoking cannabis. So at least in this city things vary so much depending on area there isn't really a way to generalize the over-all population really.

People don't always laugh because something is entirely 'funny' sometimes people laugh because of the stupidity of the whole thing. I don't know if that makes any sense but like I've laughed at things that actually bother me just because it was that ridicioulous/stupid...admittedly I've gotten strange looks a couple times for that sort of laughing.