"Rude" Research...

Rude Behavior Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings - NYTimes.com: "Alex J. Packer, author of “How Rude!: The Teenager’s Guide to Good Manners” (Free Spirit Publishing, 1997), went further. “I would be the first to say that there has been an absolute collapse of civility in the past generation or two,” Mr. Packer said. “So much of communications is once removed that it adds a layer of distance and anonymity that can only worsen manners.”

Professor Forni, who also wrote “The Civility Solution: What to Do When People are Rude,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2008), noted that the major causes of incivility were anonymity, stress, lack of time, lack of restraint and insecurity.

And we’re certainly seeing greater stress and more ability to lash out anonymously through the Internet and texting. “The more volatile the mixture, the more uncivil we become,” Professor Forni said."