Speaking as someone who is both North and South American.... North Americans are really weird.
Actually, I read a science journal a while back that showed something really cool. Because most psychological research is done in the United States, the USA social psychology results are considered "normal" and applied universally to other humans. But, this group of researchers expanded to research other countries and discovered that on a global scale, Americans are actually the outliers! This actually throws into question decades of research since it was assumed that USA results were good enough. They then concluded that they should use diverse international sample sizes from then on.
So every time you hear some sort of behavioural study and think "that's totally bullshit!" it's pretty likely the sample only accounted for Americans, and Americans are weird. Internationally speaking.
Re: Unpopular opinions
Actually, I read a science journal a while back that showed something really cool. Because most psychological research is done in the United States, the USA social psychology results are considered "normal" and applied universally to other humans. But, this group of researchers expanded to research other countries and discovered that on a global scale, Americans are actually the outliers! This actually throws into question decades of research since it was assumed that USA results were good enough. They then concluded that they should use diverse international sample sizes from then on.
So every time you hear some sort of behavioural study and think "that's totally bullshit!" it's pretty likely the sample only accounted for Americans, and Americans are weird. Internationally speaking.