The Seattle Freeze is, according to widely held belief, a difficulty with making new friends in the U.S. city of
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
, particularly for transplants from other areas. A 2005 article in ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'' appears to be the first known use of the term, although the phenomenon was documented during rapid population increases in the early 1920s, World War II, and the 1980s.
Key traits
Newcomers to the area have described
Seattleites as socioculturally apathetic, standoffish, cold, distant, and distrustful. People from Seattle tend to mainly interact with their particular
clique
A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...
in social settings such as bars and parties. One author described the aversion to strangers as "people
hoare very polite but not particularly friendly", while some residents dispute any existence of the Seattle Freeze altogether.
History
Speculation of the origin is the reserved personalities of the city's early
Nordic and
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
immigrants,
the emotional effects of the
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
(such as
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder subset, in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year.
Common symptoms include sleeping too much, having li ...
), or the region's history of independent-minded
pioneers.
''The Seattle Times'' reported in April 1920: “Seattle people have been accused of being too cold and distant.”
The ''Seattle Daily Times'' described similar characteristics as early as the 1940s.
Seattle experienced an influx of new residents from
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
beginning in the 1980s, and a 2005 article in ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...
'' appears to be the first known use of the term.
A 2008 peer-reviewed study published in ''
Perspectives on Psychological Science
''Perspectives on Psychological Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of psychology. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Association for Psychological Science. The journal was established in 2006 and the editor-i ...
'' found that among all 50 states, Washington residents ranked 48th in the personality trait
extraversion
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
. In 2014, a report by a local nonprofit organization ranked the population 48th out of 50 similarly sized cities in "talking with neighbors frequently", and 37th for "giving or receiving favors". The rapid growth of
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
and its accompanying influx of technology workers who could be considered more introverted than other working professionals may have exacerbated the issue. A 2019 nonscientific poll conducted by Seattle-based
PEMCO Insurance found that about 40% of the 1,200 respondents in Washington and
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
said making new friends was not important. In similar 2022 poll, about two-thirds of residents agreed, at least somewhat, that giving newcomers the "
cold shoulder
"Cold shoulder" is a phrase used to express dismissal or the act of disregarding someone. Its origin is attributed to Sir Walter Scott in a work published in 1816, which is in fact a mistranslation of an expression from the Vulgate Bible. There i ...
" was a typical trait from those in the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
.
The Seattle Freeze was discussed in relation to isolation during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
spurred lockdowns due to the region's already engrained propensity for "cultural distancing", along with the Director of the University of Washington's Center for the Science of Social Connection describing it as "you feel outside the group but the group itself is intact".
See also
*
Iowa nice
Iowa nice (adaptation of “Minnesota nice”) is a cultural label used to describe the stereotypical attitudes and behaviors of residents within the U.S. state of Iowa, particularly in terms of the friendly agreeableness and emotional trust show ...
*
Minnesota nice
Minnesota nice is a cultural stereotype applied to the behavior of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin implying residents are unusually courteous, reserved, mild-mannered and passive-aggressive against people who are not like them. The phrase als ...
*
Seattle process The ''Seattle process'' or ''Seattle way'' is a term stemming from the political procedure in Seattle and King County, and to a lesser extent other cities and the Washington state government. The term has no strict definition but refers to the per ...
*
Southern hospitality
Southern hospitality is a phrase used in American English to describe cultural stereotype of the Southern United States, with residents perceived to show kindness, warmth, and welcoming of visitors to their homes, or to the South in general.
Orig ...
References
{{Reflist
Culture of Seattle
Social phenomena
Culture of the Pacific Northwest
Social issues