Hi, it's Curious City editor Alexandra Solomon. And today on the show, we're revisiting a story from last year about something known as Midwest Nice. You know, that idea that people in the Midwest are somehow nicer than people in other parts of the country.

Midwestern Nice is this understanding that you should be kind to people, regardless of the circumstance,

and that you should suppress any urge to speak ill of anybody.

So are Midwesterners really nicer?

Hmm.

Reporter Andrew Meriweather has that answer.

That's coming up.

What's coming up.

What's up, Chicago?

Come out to Thalia Hall Free for All this Saturday, August 23rd, for a free building crawl to benefit the Pilsen Food Pantry.

Explore the venue at your own pace with live music, a pop-up market, and a Curious City scavenger hunt.

More info at WBEZ.org slash events.

Curious City listener Shining Lee lives with 12 housemates in Hyde Park.

And when the dishes pile up in the sink, Shining just bluntly asked people to clean up their mess.

But she says that not all of her housemates are so direct, especially those from the Midwest.

My housemate wrote this sign and put it above the sink and it says,

Hey, did you know that if sponges are left soaking, they'll develop germs and be stinky? Oh, no. And there was maybe like a little sponge and it had like a smiley face and like it was like running around. What Shining is describing reflects a common stereotype about Midwesterners, that they're just plain nicer and maybe a little more passive-aggressive than the rest of the country. It's called Midwest Nice. Shining is a Chinese immigrant who grew up on the East Coast and moved to the Midwest at the age of nine. And even at that young age, she noticed that people acted differently. In Delaware, like, you go to a grocery store and, like, no one would talk to you. And then I moved to Ohio and people wave at each other on the street.

And it just felt more welcoming.

But as she got older, she had this nagging feeling that it was all an act.

So Shining Asked Curious City to investigate whether Midwest Nice was actually real or just a made-up stereotype.

If you haven't heard of Midwest Nice, maybe you've heard of Minnesota Nice. It's basically the same thing. You may have seen it in movies, like in this scene from Fargo, where Marge, played by Francis McDormant, ever so kindly tells a man not to sit next to her. No, why don't you sit over there? I prefer that. Sorry. Oh, no, no, just so I can see. I don't have to turn my neck. Oh, sure, sure. Or take the church lady from Saturday Night Live, who has a very Midwestern response to things she finds unpleasant. Well, isn't that special? Obviously, this is a huge generalization about millions of people.

But I learned that there's evidence Midwest Nice is real and stems from how the region was settled.

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