Why have the British always been regarded as being unemotional?

Question

Why have the British always been regarded as being unemotional?

Answer 1

I am not an English and i don't think that you are regarded as unemotional. I could say because you are first in everything better economical situation better studies better health insurance you are in many things in the first places and excellence is not  human characteristics that's why other people regard you as unemotional.

Answer 2

I don't know but it's true isn't it. ...That is the way Americans see the British.

Answer 3

um, not really you should see them during a Chelsea match.

Answer 4

Good question, maybe it's because they are known for their humour, and it's hard to show emotion when you are known as someone that's funny. I'm kinda like that. . . . I hate crying in public. But as for general British people, I don't think it's the case. . .i know some britts that do show emotion often. Maybe it's a coincidence.

Answer 5

Emotions does not mean that you should cry in public or laugh out in public; Emotions is another way of showing your character and knowing who you are; the British does not like that cos showing emotions means "that I am better than you in anyway"- such a ridiculous attitude - Look around you in Europe, British refused to learn any other language cos their is spoken universally - No wonder other people can't  figure out their sense of humour. Remember when Princess D died; emotionless set of people - Everyone was outraged; you can even translate their emotions to: Good riddance to her - if she is not here we will be liked better- wrong.  You sometimes wonder why our children are turning out the way they are; cos they are tired of pretending to be what they are not(British Empire- Hah!)

Answer 6

Because our leaders led half the world. So they had to become professional and less emotional, Thus mix that with the behavioural traits that are associated with hierarchy and delusions of grandeur, and there you go.!

Answer 7

cos crying out laude in front of people is embarrassing, not gentlemanly or lady like.

Answer 8

We hate everything

Answer 9

It is very simple.

Because of the "Freemasons".

They invadet our planet some 14.400 years ago and they installed Religion and they CONTROL religion.

They are THE DEVIL IN ALL RELIGIONS.

They have a better understanding in mahematics and Geometry.

They have NO FEELING OF EMPATHY.

ALL THEY WANT IS POWER.

THEY ARE BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE.

Da Vinci was a "FREEMASON" and they have a different vision then us because they are not from this planet.

Proof?!

Take any picture from Da Vinci (best: "Battle of Anghiari").

Take it into Photoshop and copy and paste it TWICE into two Layers.

Layer 2 make 50% transparent ==>Opacity = 50%

Now you can move Layer 2 with your Arrow Keys left or right.

You will see many strange Images, mostly scary creatures and Images of destruction, as well as the "Freemasons" square and Compass.

It works on many Levels and you should do this procedure with Images from the Times the Pope and the Queen.

You will be amazed.

How is this possible?

Because we see from left to right and with concenration you can superimpose in your mind, your "3rd" eye, the "Freemasons" eye, the eye of "Horus".

Don't beleive me, do it and you'll find the same!

Answer 10

I really can't bring myself to comment, dontcherknow!

Answer 11

I wouldnt say we are unemotional, I would say we are more reserved.

Answer 12

Stiff upper lip old chap!

Answer 13

Have we? Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge? Ok, so not everyone is a historically famous poet, but these are just the best of the best from the last 660 years. Although America appears to be making all the films and films are where most people whitness emotional language, Britain still makes up a large proportion of the films and books being filmed or written today. As for the general population of Britain, well we aren't extatically, over the top emotional all day long, but we have our moments. There are moments of nation wide silence when a disaster or anniversary of a tragedy occurs, many people cry when sad stories appear in the news, many more people cry when a football team gets religated. We don't salute our flag every morning and we aren't over enthusiastic with every sentece we try to convey, but they are only things that appear on the surface.

Any reason why Britain might be seen as unemotional most likely stems from either the stern colonization of the majority of the world, the British Empire under the rule of the highly unemotional Queen Victoria, or the fact that it is a nation built on the efforts of the working class, a class that just a few generations ago worked largely down coal mines.

Edit: All this 'stiff upper lip' buisness, that is thanks to a false sterotypical way in which an upper class English military man in the late 1870s might encourage another man to keep his emotions hidden, ever watched Zulu? As for the way in which Americans see British, that is amusingly irritating, an American exchange student came to live in my hometown and she was shocked to find that non of us talked with a standard or RP 'posh' accent. All over the UK, dialect changes drastically, take something simple like a bread roll, we have the words barm, bap, cob, stottie, cake, batch, all used to represent what is basically the same thing. If a 'geordie', (or someone from the North East of England) was sent over to America with a normal 'Geordie' accent, people would not be able to tell what country they were from, people rarely talk in the stereotypical way in which many 'British' characters in American TV shows do. It's funny, but it does seem to hide a whole variety of aspects to true British culture.

Answer 14

I think the impression started during WW2. Winston Churchill filled his speeches with term " we must keep a stiff upper lip"

Answer 15

Because they were imperialists ? Didn't care for the little man ?

Answer 16

Can't believe the load of tosh written here. It's like saying the 'Welsh can sing' the Welsh enjoy singing. Everyone is a human being no matter which country they were born in and feel emotion (unless you are a sociopath)

I was born in the UK to parents who came from Scotland and England, the British just get on with things and don't complain even when perhaps they should.

Answer 17

I'm not!!  And I'm English.  I think it comes from the "stiff upper lip" saying.  We are emotional..but through the world war 2 people just got on with things and carried on their daily chores despite the bombings because that is what the British do..hence the "stiff upper lip" saying.  "Don't let the buggers get you down" is another one.

Answer 18

You are generalizing and it is just not true. Questions like this make me emotional.

Answer 19

I don't think they have, not always.

But then again, I watch 'antiques roadshow' and none of the Brits on there seem to care when they have something valuable, their just like 'oh really. thats lovely'

I wish I was british.

Its probebly because of the 'stiff upper lip' tradition and the Queen and the protocol and whatever. But you can't watch funny guys like Ross Noble and say the British are unemotional...quite the opposite in fact.

Answer 20

Everybody has the same underlying bio-chemical basis for emotions.

The 'British' (not an easily defined group) have become regarded as unemotional mainly because the way they express emotions tends to be less demonstrative than those of, for example, Americans. Thsi does not mean that they are less emotional, just that they tend to express emotions in different and quieter ways.

In particular, making outbursts involving shouting out opinions which the speaker does not really hold, and then expecting everyone to forget about them afterwards, is foreign to British tradition.

This is partly because British cultural values include the belief that eveyone is entitled to be taken seriously, and so to assume that a person does not really mean their words is a serious insult. It follows that anyone making an angry outburst and saying things they do not mean will have difficulty and embarrasment afterwards when they have to explain that they were not telling the truth earlier. Hence the Britiish do not tend to makre this sort of outburst, as the consequences are too inconvenient. E.g. I recall an American woman who after some minor dispute with other members of a social cloub shouted for all to hear that she hated the place and everyone in it and was resigning and marched out. She was back two days later apparently expecting everything to carry on as usual, and was genuinely surprised to find that the membership committe had naturally believed her and so had posted her the balance of her annual sunscription and invited the next person on the waiting list to take the vacant place. They would not have been so unspeakably rude as to have not believed that she meant what she said.