Are American Relationships More Superficial?

“Wall Theory.”

One discussion I had in a graduate-level (ha!) cross-cultural class was on perceptions of America from two angles — those who have lived in America their whole lives, and those who had come in the last 10 years. It was a small sample size on each side, admittedly, but relatively equal numbers, so the conversation had some interesting points.

After we got through all the Americans — most of whom said stuff like “entrepreneurial spirit!” — we shifted to the other side, and the first two people to raise their hands (their hands literally shot up) said, “American relationships are much more superficial.”

One of the guys elaborated: “In America, you go to college for four years. You meet 200–300 people, right? How many are you actually friends with a year or two later? Maybe four or five at most?” I started thinking about this. Now, I’ve never lived anywhere but America — I’ve only actually even traveled outside of America two times — so I can’t say for sure what other cultures are like in terms of relationship-building, but … there is some interesting research out there that’s worth poking around for a second.