The Incivility Factor


On my travels out of country, I find myself coming up with the same question all of the time. Are Americans civilized?.


And I never seem to have a satisfactory answer because until recently I didn’t really know. As a result, I would introduce all of these qualifiers and excuses into my subjective view and shrug my shoulders.

But now I’ve figured a way to decide the question.

In my own experience, one geographical location actually knocked me off my keester and my findings out the window…because they absolutely went the other way when it came to civility. Read: They were so civilized, they went right off the charts.

Let me explain that my nonscientific study is predicated on a very simple test that you can try yourself.

I call it the Incivility Factor and here’s my criteria

I have thought that a good measurement of civility, is driver behavior.

After all, aren’t driver manners indicative of human behavior?

And, therefore, my yardstick is predicated on driver behavior as a measure of ‘civility.’

Now, the measurement uses what we describe as a per finger scale predicated on a full upraised finger which earns a full 8.5 on the scale, However, if the full finger is accompanied by derisive language, the score is raised to the max: a full 10.

Lesser scores are more subjective ranging from zero—no comments and no fingers to the full ten described below.

We’ve discovered that there’s a great deal of subjectivity that precedes the actual results of the test.

In more than ninety percent of the cases, those who are responsible for judging the tests misjudged the civility of the subject, typically over-rating them. In actuality, the scores conducted indicate that the drivers behave much less civilly than heretofore suspected.


The test description:

The testing is conducted by red lights. No two tests can be conducted at the same light.
In addition, ten lights constitute a test.

Test Method:

The tester drives up to the red light and turns the engine completely off. When the light changes color to green, the tester must wait sixty seconds before turning on the ignition, while in the meantime observing the behavior of those behind him/her.

Under the circumstances, this driver discovered that the Incivility Factor ran 80% plus or minus an error of about 10% over a ten light test.

However, the real meaning of the test can only be determined by measuring change over time.

For example, after 9/11, this observer noted that the InCivility Factor rose by approximately 25% after than before 9/11 according to my very unscientific measurements.

As I said, the opposite results were obtained in Charlotte, where when the tests were conducted, other drivers went out of their way to be polite and in several cases blamed themselves for my being unable to move. In all cases, they maintained their smiles for the full sixty seconds, impressing this tester immensely and throwing all other tests results out of alignment.

This is not to say that this test could not be replicated elsewhere where other measurements similar to what I actually obtained in Charlotte may be possible.

The above was conducted in the following states: Delaware, Virginia (mostly Asian signs of disapproval), New Jersey (mostly alien responses that could not be deciphered),
Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina (the guns came out which were hiding behind the Rebel flags), Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont.

We hope that you will be encouraged to conduct your own tests.

For bumper stickers designed to respond to vituperation and other form of insulting behavior, please send 5.00 to Les Aaron@hubmaster@aol.com...

Best wishes,

Les Aaron
The Contrarion


We would like to know your experience..