Americans are known for being great salespeople. People have some theories about why.
What is it about American culture?

American sales people making deals happen.
Americans are known as some of the best salespeople in the world. The country has been the home of some of the most influential business communicators of all time, like Steve Jobs of Apple or filmmaker Walt Disney. America is also the birthplace of people who became legends for their ability to excite people with their incredible, audacious promotional skills, such as P.T. Barnum or Muhammad Ali.
There’s also a dark side to the uniquely American gift of gab. Americans have the reputation of being masters of BS. Hunter S. Thompson, a writer with a fondness for exaggeration, once referred to America as a “nation of 220 million used car salesmen.”
An X user named Alz, born in Hong Kong, was curious about why Americans are so great at sales, presenting ideas, and (less favorably) BS-ing than people in other countries. The tweet went viral, receiving over 1.4 million views. Nearly everyone agreed that Americans are the world's best salespeople, but there were many different answers to why.
“Why are Americans, on average, so incredibly good at presenting/selling/ (you could uncharitably call it) BS-ing? Is it something about early/middle/high school education? Culture? Parents teaching their kids?” Alz asked.
“I troll, but this is an incredibly important skill, and for some reason observationally, America, which has an early education system few are generally jealous of, seems to systematically produce ppl with a much higher distribution of presentation ability than anywhere else,” Alz continued.
I troll but this is an incredibly important skill, and for some reason observationally, America, which has a early education system few are generally jealous of, seems to systematically produce ppl with a much higher distribution of presentation ability than anywhere else
— alz (@alz_zyd_) May 30, 2024
Some respondents believe Americans are great at sales because so many work in the service sector. Over the past 50 years, globalization has altered the labor landscape, with many jobs moving from manufacturing to the service sector. Thus, Americans have learned to place a significant value on those who can communicate one-on-one, such as people who work in hospitality, retail, or personal training.
Honestly I think it’s because we were the first major economy to really transition from an industrial to service based economy. The vast majorities of our jobs are all about providing a service, and many of those are about selling said service as well
— Alex (@nycwebs90) May 30, 2024
The service sector in the U.S. reached 70% of GDP when millennials were born (circa 1990). My theory is that kids raised in a service-sector family have these traits. pic.twitter.com/1cN9kn3s9D
— Jiageng Liu (@jiageng_liu) May 30, 2024
Others believe Americans have the gift of gab because its education system highly values communication skills, which are favorable in the business world. However, some believe this emphasis comes at the expense of STEM skills, which are seen as more important in other countries.
Probably the fact that *every* class in primary school had multiple presentations a year.
— John Ruf (@JohnRuf6) May 30, 2024
Its probably the easiest way to pass time in a classroom, split the 30 students into 10 groups of 3, have each present for 15 minutes, boom that's like 3 days of no work.
It is the education system My daughter was taught to write, critique, present, argue, structure and edit from kindergarten. Woven through her school experience. It is pretty amazing.
— Neela Saldanha (@NeelaSaldanha) May 30, 2024
American education emphasizes synthesis, argument, and persuasion over rote memorization and rule-following.
— Joey Katzen (@joeykatzen) May 30, 2024
Identifying patterns + convincing others
Which is maybe surprising b/c we also infantilize our youth, giving them very little personal freedom outside the classroom.
Many people think Americans are great communicators because it's crucial to be able to sell and persuade in a competitive, free-market capitalist system. If you aren’t able to sell the goods and services you provide and produce, then it doesn’t matter if you’re in business at all. Further, American business culture is also seen as more relationship-based than in other countries, where buying and selling is merely transactional.
This is a great question and having lived in the US for a few years here’s what I think:
— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) May 30, 2024
America is a capitalist society and this capitalism is rooted in a Protestant ethos (Max Weber has a book on it).
In this Protestant worldview, creating a business means serving the…
The free market rewards it
— Triple Bankshot (@triplebankshot) May 30, 2024
I've wondered the same thing. It's definitely cultural, and I think it's connected to how Americans tend to do business relationally rather than transactionally. Europeans often take a more formal, regulated approach while American business is more trust-based.
— Gil Gildner (@gilgildner) May 30, 2024
Social mobility and the myth of the "self-made man" basically inculcates the idea that anyone can talk themselves into wealth and status. Plenty of these types are lionized in American history.
— David Kiferbaum (@DavidKiferbaum) May 30, 2024
It could be that it’s all part of a culture that values openness and confidence which bleeds over into other aspects of American life. Persuasion and sales come a lot more naturally to people who've been raised with zero fear of calling attention to themselves. Outside the business world, Americans are also seen as friendly in social situations and have no problem engaging in small talk with strangers. Americans’ extroverted nature can sometimes shock people who travel to the U.S. on vacation.
Founding principles of the country. You can do anything here.
— Ashish “Logmaster” (@ashishlogmaster) May 31, 2024
It’s highly ingrained within society
Egalitarianism. Americans learn naturally to speak to everyone as if they were friends. This is good for sales although not everywhere in the world.
— Alex Tabarrok 🛡️ (@ATabarrok) May 31, 2024
I'm going to throw it out there: Because Americans are also REALLY good at buying things - they're great consumers of products and ideas. Old world places - like Europe tend to be suspicious of new ideas (but not ideologies it seems) which makes selling them much harder.
— James Clark 📈📉¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@mr_james_c) May 31, 2024
High openness. People are not afraid of talking with others.
— Peter Kazanjy (@Kazanjy) May 30, 2024
The fact that one might call it "BS-ing" might indicate the root cause issue of why others are not good at it.
Or, it could be that Americans just have a ‘rizz that’s the envy of the world.
Yeah I don’t know how else to describe it except calling it a culture of rizz, it’s a huge difference I noticed coming here from Europe as a kid
— dog that lays eggs (@l_wzbr) May 30, 2024
It’s called CHARISMA, and we invented it
— Rhett Ullmann (@rhettullmann) May 30, 2024
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."
This article originally appeared in May.