The harm caused by witnessing rudeness

Great piece of research reported on the British Psychological Website:

" Seeing one person be rude to another can stunt a person's creativity, impair their mental performance and make them less likely to be civil themselves. Christine Porath and Amir Erez, who made this finding, say it has profound implications for the workplace, where rudeness has been described by some as a modern epidemic...."

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/05/harm-caused-by-witnessing-rudeness.html

Good book to read as well:

"The managers book of decencies - how small gestures build great companies" by Steve Harrison. (http://tinyurl.com/cu879d)

UPDATE: just read Stephen Fry's blog post today - very much worth a look at - as a supreme example of how to be courteous and decent (the opposite of rude):

http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/10/19/poles-politeness-and-politics-in-the-age-of-twitter/

I was moved to comment on his blog:

Prompted by your blog posting, I was reflecting on ‘courtesy’ as I did one of my 30 minutes of thrice weekly aerobic punishment. Saying sorry is a deep act of courtesy. I believe that we are, when all is said and done, highly cooperative animals and the courteousness of saying sorry evidences our true nature. As a consequence saying sorry is profoundly influential – because it reverberates & resonates with our being.

I would suggest (without scientific foundation though) that seeing someone else’s decent & courteous actions makes us feel good.

This is why it is great to see what you say, do and write, Stephen. Simultaneously you affirm our cooperative nature and help us all resist plummeting into the 9 levels of rude and crass Hell. Please keep it up! Thanks.