It’s official – Rio de Janeiro has been voted the world’s friendliest city, despite a growing reputation for street crime, drugs and violence.
According to a report on the BBC News website, researchers from the New Scientist magazine spent six years assessing cities and their residents before coming to their decision. The cities were graded according to the way locals treat strangers, after the researchers conducted helpfulness tests such as dropping pens, pretending to be blind or injured, or leaving self-addressed envelopes in public places.
Generally speaking, cities that were considered “poor” or “unstable” fared well, and Latin American cities also had friendlier residents. Rio was top of the list, closely followed by Costa Rica’s San Jose, while Madrid, Spain, was third. Cities that were deemed unfriendly included New York, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Amsterdam.
The magazine concludes that the research confirms the existence of “stimulus overload”, which “states that in overcrowded, fast-paced cities people often deal with their surroundings by ignoring emergency situations and depersonalising strangers”.
