Britishness Abroad

New research by the MORI Social Research Institute on behalf of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) indicate that the 'British sense of humour', the 'stiff upper lip' and a 'bulldog spirit' are often seen as typically 'British' characteristics. The qualitative work involves a series of focus groups in Milan, Mumbai, Chicago and King's Lynn and in-depth discussions with London correspondents to a range of foreign media.

The 'British sense of humour' is described as clever and intelligent. It is viewed as a positive characteristic and is perceived to be unique to Britons by most participants, especially those in Chicago and Milan.

Politeness with a 'sense of propriety' is also seen to be a key British trait. Whilst politeness is generally viewed as a positive trait (especially by the Chicago groups), some respondents (especially in the Milan groups) say that this politeness can be off-putting, and went on to describe the British as reserved, uptight and snobbish

The idea of 'individuality' is viewed as a key characteristic of Britishness, and this is seen to be the case on personal, political and international levels. This notion stems from the idea that Britons are fairly independent as individuals, and are often politically independent in relation to the rest of Europe.

A reverence for tradition and history are seen as a particularly 'British' trait. This is linked to the British sense of pride. Whilst the Americans in Chicago saw this as a positive association, the Italians in Milan, on the other hand, saw Britons as excessively tied to the past with out-dated traditions and customs.

The full report on exploring attitudes to Britishness is being published by the RSA on Tuesday 16 November 2004, and will be available on their website at that time.

Technical details

Two focus groups were conducted in each location of Milan, Italy; Mumbai, India; Chicago, USA; and King's Lynn, Britain, in October 2004, with one consisting of respondents from higher social groups (roughly equivalent to the British ABC1 classification) and the other from lower social groups (roughly C2DE classification).

Other than social class the focus groups were all of mixed gender and age. The groups were conducted in each country in the native language of that country, and moderators were local to the areas. The location of the groups was chosen by the RSA and MORI as case study areas, and therefore should not be seen to represent the views of people overall from the individual countries. In addition, telephone interviews were conducted with London-based correspondents working for international publications in the United States, South Africa, India, Germany and Lebanon.

• The report can be found on the RSA website here: www.rsa.org.uk/acrobat/exploring_britishness_summary_report.pdf pdf document, 326K