|
There are a few factors that need be considered.
1) Higher population usually means a lower level of politeness. A good example is the greeting. In rural regions it is often considered perfetctly normal that two persons that cross each other path should greet each other, even if they never met before (althought that usually doesn't happen). However that is very impractical in a big city. I mean you can cross the path of 100 different persons in a single minute, you cannot greet all of them.
You mentioned the car driver, that's a little different, but in the case of a bus driver, it might be just a single trip in a day for you but for them you might be the 1000th passenger.
This kind of environment tend to modify someone's perception of other. When you are used to ignore people you'll end up ignoring them even in other contests.
2) Cultural differences. I see you are french, i'm not surprised you care about politeness because your culture is one that enforces it. My sister has been living in Paris for six months, she once told me she's been criticized because after buying something from a shop she didn't say "merci". As a total opposite i've been in some east european countries and i noticed that people there do not mind too much about thanking each other.
Now the western world is becoming multiethnic and cultural differences might shake the balance of perceived politeness.
|