Member-only story
How Self-deprecation Works in New Zealand (and Doesn’t in France)
We're just terrible at showing off
New Zealanders are probably the most self-deprecating people in the world. We might even be number one on the self-deprecation table — but of course, I couldn’t say that. Just making the claim would, ironically, contradict it.
The fact that we’re a small isolated country at the bottom of the world seems to have created a culture in which boasting about yourself is akin to murder. While you could boast about other people or things, you could never do likewise for yourself. That’s because we suffer from Tall Poppy Syndrome: a phenomenon where anyone who deems themselves better than others is immediately cut down to size. A poppy, after all, is a type of red flower. And so a ‘tall poppy’ is simply a poppy that is taller than others — one, you could say, that thinks itself superior to those it physically lords itself over.
Not surprisingly, most people don’t tend to like people who think they’re better than others. Such an attitude creates a feeling of resentment and instantly marks out the offending party for subtle — or not so subtle — ostracism. While working in New Zealand, I once had a colleague who had spent several of his formative years in the United States. Despite having returned to New Zealand for university, he still…
