I was looking through some polling and I found some quite striking results. It seems that the US has a significantly more favorable views of a lot of countries than they have of the US, based on the most recent Pew and Gallup polling. (Data below.) Why do you think that is?
US favorability of Australia: 88 percent. Australia fav. of US: 54 percent.
US fav. of Canada: 87 percent. Canada fav. of US: 63 percent.
US fav. of Germany: 80 percent. Germany fav. of US: 63 percent.
US fav. of France: 83 percent. France fav. of US: 57 percent.
US fav. of UK: 86 percent. UK fav. of US: 64 percent.
Now, they’re two different sets of polling, so take this skeptically, but it seems significant. Also note that South Korea is the opposite: 89 percent of SK has a favorable view of US, while only 71 percent of US has favorable view of SK. Links to data [here](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/06/22/international-public-opinion-of-the-u-s-remains-positive/) and [here](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1624/perceptions-foreign-countries.aspx).
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31 comments
Because we don’t base a significant portion of our culture on performative distain for those other countries.
Stone house phenomenon, we do not need contempt to justify our own existence.
Because Americans only see their own countries worts and not others since we don’t care about what happens in those places.
And for foreigners they see anti-American propaganda by their news bubbles, which do show America because foreigners, even though they won’t admit, have a fascination of learning about America. Hence why foreigners always ask questions about the US
It’s the difference between punching up and punching down.
US be like: “We want to have trade with you, enter alliances with you, and discuss geopolitics with your government. We both benefit from economic and political stability.”
Other countries be like: “Oh yeah? If you’re so good, why do you sell bone-in meat at the supermarket?”
I would say other countries get a heavier news coverage of the US than we do of theirs. Most of the US perception of those countries is based off culture like movies, while we definitely export movies/TV most of the day to day exposure in other countries is based off news and this coverage tends to be negative to be newsworthy. Most Americans aren’t keeping up with Australian or European news cycles unlike people in those countries following US news far more than we would theirs and it’ll lead to negative impressions.
Barring some notable exceptions like say.. brexit, we don’t really see their dirty laundry much. Even when the summary of events makes it here, it takes something on that scale before names get named or we see regular people talking about it, etc…
Between global news and social media EVERYONE sees ours.
It’s like gramma always said – haterzz gonna hate.
Without taking a look at the specific questions and criteria to elaborate on the differences in methodology I can only really give a guess, but I’d assume there’s a bit of a “cultural uncanny valley” going on when Europeans look at the United States. There’s so much that appears the same at first glance that it makes all of the many differences pop out.
There’s also just the fact that by and large most other countries’ citizens have heard more about the crazy shit happening in the US than Americans have heard going on in their country.
It is the nature of countries to play “King of the Hill”. Britain got it before. Weirdly it still gets it from memory.
Then you see all their Reddit posts: “I visited the USA and wow I really liked it, who knew!!”
Gee I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that this country is constantly depicted as some sort of Mad Max hellscape, while Europe is constantly depicted as some sort of utopia?
We just aren’t exposed to their news and so we honestly don’t see their warts that often unless it is a catastrophe like a major terrorist attack or a huge natural disaster. Our main coverage of their countries is through our diplomats and politicans talking about them positively, or through vacation.
Because everyone is upset by the politics in this country, no matter which camp they fall under. If it wasn’t for that, it’d probably be more favorable.
Jealously stemming from inferiority complex mostly
News about US mostly only shows our dirty laundry with few exceptions of the good things going on in the US. News about Europe (which isn’t a lot since we really don’t care that much about what is happening over there compared to how much attention Europe gives to the US) is almost always the good parts other than focusing all the negative coverage on whichever European countries are currently at war with eachother to make Europe look like some utopia other than the latest country to invade another. So right now Russia gets all the coverage when running negative news of Europe and the little else we see of Europe is far more positive than what gets put out about the US.
People in the US like the fantasy utopia version of a Europe we get shown more than people in Europe like the sensationalized Mad Max version of the US they see.
It’s rude to punch down
The European superiority complex is a bitch.
The only ones on this list that continually surprise me are Canada and Australia. Like, we’re so isolated from Europe that it makes sense that they would view us as lesser than the people that are a stones throw away.
I genuinely don’t understand what hate Canadians have. Like, they’re literally a smaller version of us, and a huge part of their economy and defense is bolstered and upheld by the US… they benefit far more from a good relationship with us than we do with them.
Australia just makes me… sad. Like, Americans seems to love everything about Australia, and it’s such a one sided thing that it just…. Confuses me.
Because our news media isn’t constantly showing every bad thing that happens in those countries the way their media does ours.
It’s a recent phenomenon based on young Americans feeling guilty about their position. Previous American generations were either happy about their circumstances or didn’t attribute them to their political climate or prescribed to their political climate as correct. Americans were better off in the 40s than today. I think powerful people see profitability in division. I can sell more shirts to 2 fighting groups than I can to 1 unified group.
Our bullshit is way more internationally publicized than anyone else’s is. I generally approve of Germany as a thriving Western Democracy but I couldn’t give you the name of the chancellor before Angela Merkel, because my media is American centric and I don’t pay an adequate amount of attention to international politics
American culture is built on multiple, foreign cultures. Most Americans have some knowledge of their ethnic heritage, and a sense of “where they’re really from” – for some people it’s a distant, family myth, for others it’s a very direct connection.
So one of our concepts of mutual respect also includes showing respect for other people’s ethnic heritage, and by extension “where they’re really from.” This is also why we put so much effort into talking about and acknowledging our different ethnic backgrounds – things like black history month or AAPI history month are there to remind us that we as a country, culture, and people are made up of many different groups, all of which have contributed significantly to who and what we are.
So what that means is, if you ask an American, “What do you think of X country?” We’ll say, oh, well, gee, my neighbor’s family’s from roundabouts there, they’re great people, great food, lovely holidays. Some of our greatest inventions were made by them.
On the other hand, if you spend all your energy teaching your children that your country is “by us for us,” your views of other countries will be nothing but vibes and stereotypes, because your only exposure to different cultures is through media made by people that are just like you.
Because the way I see it
It’s always America’s way mostly only
Because they’re great
In spite of my dislike for internet Aussies, Canuckians and Krauts, I recognize that those are ***internet*** Aussies, Canuckians and Jerries and that I shouldn’t judge the real people by their worst denominators.
Korea likes the US because the US is the big bad bear that spooks the local bear away from the smaller animals. Because of the guaranteed US defense of Korea, Korea was able to oust several corrupt domestic governments until they were able to come to relatively clean one by the time of the sixth republic, as they didn’t have to focus on preventing North Korean-Sino invasions into Korea.
On top of that, before the US came along, Korea had been under the control of foreign powers (either essentially or explicitly) since the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876 (With Japan fully annexing Korea in 1910 until the American removal of Japanese occupiers in Korea in 1945, which admittedly did include a wildly unpopular American occupation of Korea by US forces until 1948). US support has kept Korea sovereign and has allowed it to grow to an economic power house in spite of the disadvantages in natural resources it faces when compared to North Korea.
It’s a similar story in many Asian nations. In spite of the Vietnam War, the US far more popular in Vietnam than China is. Arguably because the intent in Vietnam was never to remove Vietnamese sovereignty, just keep our preferred Vietnamese government in control of the South, whereas China has, historically, always had problems with Vietnam’s existence. Kosovo and Japan are also other examples. Kosovo considers America key to its existence by protecting it from certain… shall we say, outside threats. Japan has been allowed to rebuild its military in contradiction to the treaty it signed with the US to end WWII because its proven to be such a reliable ally.
Sucks to see that about South Korea. Japan and South Korea are some of the coolest countries and genuinely nice people to visiting Americans. I chalk it up to some people not knowing about Korea and just making word association with North Korea or something. Or just being less familiar with Asian than Europe and the Anglosphere.
I feel like SK and Japan are pretty friendly, and it doesn’t really hurt their national egos to embrace American stuff. Like they feel confident in their own national identity and culture and they’re just generally open minded to other subcultures and are genuinely interested.
Not all, whatsoever, but I find many Western Europeans feel slighted because a country they feel and are constantly told is their inferior is so influential culturally and geopolitically. Like it hurts their ego. So some people obsess over one-upping the US, and constantly point out its flaws and ways their country is better. And it turns into a low grade prejudice.
The weird one is when I see tourism firms advertising their country, and constantly having [to do it at the United States’ expense](https://imgur.com/a/q44ZksM). It’s a very weird strategy, insult the people you want to come spend tourism money?
I get kind of a weird vibe from Australia, I don’t really know what their problem is. The fact they poll even lower than Germany is interesting and kind of corresponds with what I’ve seen from Australians and their feelings toward “Seppos”.
The thing is, despite all the hand-wringing American oikaphobes on Reddit and social media, the average American is fairly confident. They’re not out hating countries and obsessing over being better than them. They don’t feel the need to.
We aren’t snobby assholes
It tends to be the far left and the far right in those countries that have the negative American views. The far left views America as an evil capitalist nation blocking their communist/socialist utopia while the far right hates America because they view it as a nation forcing our values on them.
Americans tend to be more optimistic, trusting, and outgoing when it comes to building relationships. They are more focused on the individual in question, not necessarily the government of that person’s country or some kind of national prestige/honor. Most of the time, if a country is lower on opinion polls, it is more due to unfamiliarity, not an actual negative opinion.
Because as you can see we’re actually the kinder, nice country.
americans get “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it” drilled into them from an early age
Because when you are the most powerful military, and economic force in the world. You really don’t care what the other countries are doing. Since we don’t care, we just enjoy the cute things we see from those countries
* Australia – awesome accents and that cool opera house
* Canada – Polite little quasi Americans with fun accents and their big coats
* Germany – Beer and girls in those big bosom dresses bringing us beer
* France – Ohhh la la…baguettes and the Eifel tower
* UK – Ohhh look they have a queen…that is so cute…oh she died. Well I guess a king is fun too. Those guards with the big hats are fun
What it boils down to is, we see the world as tourist destinations. Other than that, you all don’t really matter to us. For some reason, what we do seems to really matter to you all