I am greatly honored that you are reading this post dear guest.

When meeting another person, it is likely that polite phrases such as “How are you” are used. These are not to be taken literary, but they are to show that the person is interested in the other party. It is a social normality and also an individual goal to create good first impressions, so by using this polite communication method, it formats a proper basis to build a relationship upon it.

Polite speech can be traced back to culture. For example, in Asian culture such as Korean or Chinese, speech is devised into two categories: formal and informal. The value of the formal speech is to show respect towards the older adults. The difference between “hey what’s up” and “hello ma’am” has vastly different interpretations and can be potentially insulting if the forms are used incorrectly.

People often worry about their image and first impressions are important. It’s observed that people tend to hide their uniqueness to strangers or acquaintances so they can be viewed as “normal”. They fall back to the go-to phrases, the politeness, so they have a change to learn more about the other person. It is also a part of social normality to not go cursing at a coworker at a workplace or a stranger at school.

But of course, the person initiating the polite conversation might have other intentions in mind other than forming relationships. In fact, they might just be using the polite words to falsely give hope to the other party because the person simply is not interested in the person they are talking to. They say “let’s get in touch” or “let’s grab lunch together sometime” but do they really mean that? This supports how these phrases are not taken to be literal intents, but rather of an act of pity almost.