How to Deal With Rude People In Healthy Ways

It can be very aggravating having to deal with rude people. Often there does not appear to be any rhyme or reason to why a person acts rudely. It's often quite shocking and it may even take you aback, because there are unwritten and unspoken rules about how all of us are supposed to behave as members of polite society, and when people are rude, they are breaking that unspoken "social contract" that we all essentially agree to uphold. But there are a few effective ways to deal with rude people. Read on for some specific tips.

Things You'll Need

• A desire to learn different techniques for dealing with rude people.

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Instructions

• 1

  When it comes to figuring out how to deal with rude people, one approach you may want to take is to "kill them with kindness." (You have probably heard this old expression.) It's actually a pretty effective technique because it can make them feel guilty and ashamed about their rude behavior, and it can even shock them into behaving better. The "kill them with kindness" approach does not work with every rude person. Some rude people even get ruder when forced to face kindness "head on." But it's still worth a shot in many circumstances.

• 2

  Another effective way to deal with some (though perhaps not all) rude people is simply to ignore them and their rude behavior. Some people act rudely for the shock value. They are deliberately provoking you, perhaps because want to gain your attention for one reason or another, and they have chosen rudeness as their attention-getting method. If you ignore this type of rude person, he has failed to shock or provoke you, so he may just slink away with his tail between his legs rather than continuing to act rude. Again, this ignoring method will not work with all rude people, but it can work quite well with some of them.

• 3

  When dealing with rude people, never counter their rudeness with rudeness of your own. It will make you feel awful, especially if it is just not in your nature to be rude. You'll just regret it later. The old "eye for an eye" approach just does not work well as a method for dealing with rude people in most cases.