It’s a question, a lingering suspicion that has bedeviled nearly every generation: Are the kids these days getting more rude, more brash, more grossly unapologetic?

“We have stories of Emily dealing with this question, we have stories of our grandmother dealing with this question,” says Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette maven Emily Post and co-president of the Emily Post Institute. “Five generations gives us the length of time to prove this one out that we really do constantly look back at times nostalgically and say that they were more polite.”

Society certainly seems to think we’ve collectively gotten more rude. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly half of the country believes people’s behavior is more impolite than before the pandemic. Enter any public space and you’re bound to encounter someone having a phone call on speaker, fellow passengers mixing up egg salad on a plane, or students leaving class unannounced. These incidents inevitably become flashpoints of heated debate online.

Unchecked incivility has wide-reaching consequences. Bearing witness to behavior that you find rude, whether face-to-face or electronically, leads to worse mood and decreased cognitive performance. When someone is rude to you, you may become defensive and less likely to cooperate — no one wants to spend time and energy interacting with a jerk. Impoliteness is actually contagious, spreading from one person to another: When you experience something impolite, you’re more likely to spot other supposedly rude behavior and act impolitely yourself.

“Are we ruder? I don’t know, but I know we’re less aware of each other, we do not........

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