Minnesota Nice

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As Minnesota Nice one is communicative behaviors referred to this as typical of the social interaction in the American state of Minnesota is valid. More rarely it is also subordinated to the residents of the neighboring North Dakota and then referred to as North Dakota Nice . This includes a pronounced politeness, modesty and friendliness with simultaneous emotional restraint, which is often interpreted by outsiders as hypothermic or even as rejecting or insincere.

Origin and characteristics

Mental history , the origin of Minnesota Nice is often traced back to the Protestant ethos of the many Scandinavian immigrants in this part of the United States. A very similar social phenomenon is known in Scandinavia as the " Jante Law ", the " Ten Commandments " of which the Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose formulated in a novel in 1933 about the fictional Danish town of Jante. In a very similar way, Garrison Keillor formulated the educational norms in " 95 Theses " in the fictional Kuhkaff Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, which was shaped by Norwegian emigrants:

" You taught me to be nice, so that now I am full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no passion. “If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all,” you said, so I am very quiet, which most people think is politeness. I call it repression. "

“You taught me to be nice, so that I am so full of kindness now that I don't know the difference between right and wrong. Passion is alien to me. "If you can't say anything nice, you'd better say nothing at all," you always said, so I'm very quiet now, which many people consider politeness. I call it deadlock. "

A well-known depiction of the phenomenon (in this case the North Dakota Nice ) is also the film Fargo (1996), whose situation comedy often thrives on the mentality typical of this region.

literature

  • Syl Jones: The Unwritten Rules That Tell Minnesotans how to be Nice . Minnesota Public Radio, December 14, 2009.
  • Angela McCaffrey: Transforming Minnesota Nice Law Students into Vigorous, Yet Respectful Advocates: The Value of Simulations in Preparing Clinical Law Students for Ethical and Effective Client . In: Thomas M. Cooley Journal of Practical and Clinical Law 7, 2004.
  • Kathy Sigler, Ann Burnett, Jeffrey T. Child: A Regional Analysis of Assertiveness (PDF; 215 kB) . In: Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 37: 2, 2008. pp. 89-104.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kathy Sigler, Ann Burnett, Jeffrey T. Child: A Regional Analysis of Assertiveness ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / faculty.kent.edu archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 215 kB) . In: Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 37: 2, 2008. p. 89.
  2. ^ Mary Ann Miller: The Mists of Lake Wobegon: The Archetypal Function of an American Storyteller . In: Mary Lynn Kittleson (Ed.): The Soul of Popular Culture: Looking at Contemporary Heroes, Myths, and Monsters . Open Court, Peru IL 1998. p. 129.
  3. ^ Garrison Keillor: Lake Wobegon Days . Faber and Faber, London 1999. p. 378.