We’ve always been told that stereotypes are bad, but there are certain cultural phenom that can be measured so widely that it’s safe to say that people from certain countries at least have a tendency to behave in certain ways.
The Japanese, for instance, are said to be orderly and conformist, while Americans are said to be cowboys that like to do things their own way, even if to the detriment of others.
While this survey sticker board from a Japanese hostel – which asks where visitors hail from – may actually prove the opposite about Americans, it pretty readily confirms that the Japanese are very organized.
As can be seen in the photo, which was taken by a Western Redditor, the Japanese are extremely orderly in placing their little red and blue dots by their flag, while the Americans appear to have done their best to follow suit but have fallen just a little short.
Australians, who are often said to be laidback and easygoing, are all over the map, and the French appear to have organized their dots in some kind of shotgun blast pattern. Germans, who are also known for their extreme levels of organization, have also placed their stickers in tidy columns, although France and Germany both appear to have one or two non-conformists.
China seems to have its act together, but there were so few visitors that it’s hard to draw any conclusions.
Commenters also speculated that language may inform how people placed their dots, since the Japanese and Chinese often read and write up to down, instead of left to right; but that doesn’t quite hold water since traditional Japanese is written beginning in the upper right corner of a page, but these visitors have clearly placed their dots left to right. Either way, it’s an interesting little pictorial representation of our small differences.