New Yorkers are the most polite people in the world and have better manners than the citizens of London, Toronto and Moscow, a Reader's Digest ranking shows.
The magazine sent reporters "undercover" to 36 cities, in 35 countries, to measure courtesy. They used three types of tests to examine more than 2,000 unaware participants.
The reporters wanted to known if the people in front of them would hold the door open; recorded whether the salespeople said "thank you"; and dropped a folder full of papers in busy locations to see if anyone would help pick them up.
New Yorkers turned out to be the politest: 90 percent held the door open, 19 out of 20 store clerks said "thank you," and 63 percent of men and 47 percent of women helped with the flying papers.
The ranking left Moscow and Bucharest at the bottom of the list as the least polite cities. According to these tests Asians have the worst manners.