I do know that it’s not easy to generalize opinions about the human nature, since most people don’t agree on that. However, I think it’s possible to give a vague impression about the most common attitudes towards the human nature in Austria. That’s also what the Peace Corps culture site tried to do, with the difference that they described the American point of view.
According to the website, Americans strongly believe that men are basically good. If left alone, people will do the right thing and therefore can be trusted. Consequently, courts consider a person innocent until there are proves against him/her. If people don’t fit this pattern and do something evil, an explanation for that behavior is searched.
The official Austrian opinion is essentially the same, though in practice people certainly tend to mistrust others. People from other cultures and homeless are considered to be especially dangerous (not to mention homeless people from other cultures!). While pedagogues claim that there are certain influences that make people bad, the rest of us knows that they are just evil and should be locked up for eternity.
Broadly speaking Austrians are pretty suspicious, but if they get to know other people better and get to like them they behave differently, of course. If we can trust Peace Corps, Americans have a far better opinion about the human nature, but I’m not sure if they, too, aren’t only speaking of the official opinion. Mistrusting (Austrian) me…
According to the website, Americans strongly believe that men are basically good. If left alone, people will do the right thing and therefore can be trusted. Consequently, courts consider a person innocent until there are proves against him/her. If people don’t fit this pattern and do something evil, an explanation for that behavior is searched.
The official Austrian opinion is essentially the same, though in practice people certainly tend to mistrust others. People from other cultures and homeless are considered to be especially dangerous (not to mention homeless people from other cultures!). While pedagogues claim that there are certain influences that make people bad, the rest of us knows that they are just evil and should be locked up for eternity.
Broadly speaking Austrians are pretty suspicious, but if they get to know other people better and get to like them they behave differently, of course. If we can trust Peace Corps, Americans have a far better opinion about the human nature, but I’m not sure if they, too, aren’t only speaking of the official opinion. Mistrusting (Austrian) me…
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