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It’s perception, not objective reality.
I’m also biased, I know a lot about NZ that should put is lower on the list, but then I assume there is a bunch I don’t know about other countries, maybe that evens it out.
I’m not sure who I would put at the top, but bottom would be pretty close to what is on this list
The US is the only major Western democracy with a negative net perception score.
The USA is a democracy?
As a Canadian, we have no right being that high. I can see why we would be in the positive but damn we have a lot of maple-Maga shit going on.
It’s built up social capital. Canada for decades internationally has been generally on the popular side of conflicts and has done real humanitarian work. Canada has also built up a reputation as a reliable ally, that does what they say they’re going to do.
So yeah, as a European with a high opinion of Canada, I think it’s deserved despite your internal problems.
Russia isn’t last. Color me surprized. Would’ve thought that magnitude of assholery (millions of victims) gets some recognition from anyone with a sense of self preservation.
I think at least some of it is based on what people expect vs. what the country actually does. Israel talks about freedom and democracy, then kills Palestinians for sport. Russia’s lies are so obvious that it’s not like they’re even trying to be deceptive.
So, Israel is worse than people thought it was, whereas Russia’s exactly as bad as people expected.
There’s also recency bias. Most people these days have no clear concept how bad things like the Holodomor actually were but they do have an idea of how bad it is in Gaza right now.
Then there’s the fact that some of Russia’s worst actions were actually perpetrated by the USSR so you could argue it was a different country and that they’ve changed like Germany argues it did. Of course the USSR was run bv Russia and there’s a long list of post-Soviet Russian behavior that suggests they didn’t change all that much. But, weak as it is, that argument can be made.
I think someone can be realy proud. Cause he made it, he made it great again ! 🙃
I hate that even though Canada is so well liked, it doesn’t really help much when travelling since people just assume we’re fucking Americans. Even more so because of Americans pretending to be Canadians
Like in Argo
My friend wanted to pretend we were Canadian the last time we went traveling and I told them absolutely not. I’m not proud of the US but I don’t want to turn that into your problem
Merci pour ça…
I find when traveling just being you is your best bet. Anyone pre judging a traveler on their country of origin is an idiotic waste of your time. Even shitty countries have plenty of decent people. Chances are if they are getting out of their country to visit others they aren’t representative of the mean anyway. America is a shit hole country and there are a lot of real losers there, but not so many that it’s fair to make assumptions about any random individual. For the most part regular people living there deserve empathy. Imagine just being a normal person and having to live and work there? Imagine if you were there and someone in your family needed healthcare?
You can dust off your Quebecois and give it a try - they certainly won’t mistake you for the French.
Zut alors!
Switzerland? Really? Canada makes total sense, but Switzerland?
The same Switzerland that stored holocaust gold and other stolen assets for Nazis, that Switzerland?
The same Switzerland that denied women the right to vote until 1971, that Switzerland?
The same Switzerland that maintained anonymous bank accounts until 2013 to shelter tax evaders and other criminals, that Switzerland?
Yeah, most of the countries at the bottom of the list belong there, but there’s some major bias if Switzerland is the standard to which other countries are compared.
Part of it is just good PR / marketing. Alpine villages, funny hats, bells on cows, alpine horns, etc.
Being neutral, it is also the home to many NGOs and international orgs like CERN, some of which also have good PR. Others, like FIFA, are shitty. But, FIFA’s shittiness doesn’t really reflect on Switzerland too much – it’s not like Switzerland is protecting their corruption – but neither are they investigating them.
A lot of people don’t know about some of the shittiness inside Switzerland, like the whole black sheep anti-outsider campaign, or how they nearly ditched the EU because the EU wouldn’t allow them to enact their racist laws.
At the same time, because Switzerland basically doesn’t even have a president, there’s no figurehead out there saying objectionable things, or anything even interesting. So, that blank spot allows people to fill it in with whatever they wish Switzerland stood for.
I’m more surprised by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, those fuckers has all the opportunity in the world to fix their issues. But just don’t.
Supposedly people were surveyed from over 80 countries, which is going to include poorer places where moving to the Gulf for an untaxed office job or even “menial” labor is aspirational. I can guarantee most respondents here in Lebanon would rate them positively, remittances from expats in those countries is like half of our economy.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in these countries for work myself, with obviously some good and some bad experiences.
@Remember_the_tooth Switzerland (govt, press, advertising industry, etc.) is excellent at polishing up their turds and showing them off to the world as if they’re all super shiny. And it works, as we can see. @Eyekaytee
Some dudes really like watches idk
Easy to downplay nazi gold with your mouth full of Swiss cheese and chocolate.
Interesting how cultural export seems to be extremely important in perceptions, except for some outliers, like Canada. Why do people like Canada, do you think? Can it be just “being nice” or is there more?
- People don’t know too much about Canada.
- Canada is the constant victim of bullying from the USA so people feel sorry for Canada.
- Canada has a lot of good tourist PR out there, and Canada’s tourism tends to be about natural places, which very few people find objectionable (compare that to say Carnival in Rio which some people might think is too naughty)
- The UK has been the aggressor in plenty of wars, but since Canada became its own country, it hasn’t really been. It has joined on to wars started by the UK or the US, but isn’t much of a warmongering country.
- People don’t know about how very environmentally unfriendly Canada is in many ways, from the tar sands, to individual energy use, etc. So, Canadians avoid that damage.
- In any way that Canada is bad, the US is almost always worse, so any time there’s a comparison Canada looks better.
- In general, Canada has been relatively friendly to immigration compared to many other countries. …
That’s a very articulated answer, thanks!
I’d say because, in part, we are a developed middle-power country with a stable democracy and educated society. Our trade and foreign policies are quite reasonable towards others; plus our parks and landscapes are bountiful and beautiful ♡
Our flag is also quite distinctive and our leaders tend to be charismatic speakers on the world stage who prefer the rule-of-law. We are fairly progressive, a little socialist, and I think our culture is pretty neat too ♡
Interesting how cultural export seems to be extremely important in perceptions
It’s pretty clear Israel needs to start exporting maple syrup and cute pokemon like cartoons asap 🤣
In Europe at least, there’s a lot of historical respect. Canadians fought and died in major wars an ocean away.
Australia should be much lower at the moment. We have too many drunk dickheads and other self-interested wankers
NZ should be above us
Far above. In fact, they’re perceived worse than us, but honestly, even when I visited the US, they were super friendly there
The genuinely kind and friendly Australians make up for the shitbags a hundred fold.
And I say this as someone with generally negative interactions with Australians.
People just assume they are British so you are safe
I’m sorry but the opinion of 46,000 people out of a world population of 8 billion is not exactly a large sample size.
This data is useless. It’s like asking 3 people what their favorite soda is and presenting those findings.
To put it in perspective, that’s about the same amount of people that go watch an arena sporting event.
So to have 99.999% confidence with a margin of error of 1% representing a population of 8b, you need a sample size of 48841, so 46k is pretty good
I wonder if those stats change, when we try to consider there being 205 states/countries (193 UN members, 2 observers and 10 other states - UN numbers).
And on top of that, there’s a ton of distinct regional cultural spheres in each country
Yeah they also only captured people from 85 countries. I suspect the demographic distribution of respondents from each country is a pretty big factor.
This user stats.
you go ahead and run the study with 100,000,000 people
