Take a deep breath and be calm instead of snapping back. Later on, try responding with an act of kindness. Doing so could break the cycle of rudeness by allowing the other person to match your behavior. If this tactic doesn't work, you can still be proud you didn't succumb to negativity.
One of the best ways to defuse rude and negative behavior is to stay friendly and positive. This gives the other person a chance to calm down and adjust their behavior to match yours. Kindness can be a wonderful antidote to rudeness.
Rudeness, particularly with respect to speech, is necessarily confrontational at its core. Forms of rudeness include acting inconsiderate, insensitive, deliberately offensive, impolite, obscenity, profanity and violating taboos such as deviancy.
There can be many root causes for rudeness, such as insecurity or fear. People are often rude after being on the receiving end of rudeness. Researchers have found that “just like the common cold, common negative behaviors can spread easily and have significant consequences.” In other words… Rude is contagious!
For example, if someone says, “Your haircut looks stupid,” you can respond with, “You might be right.” They might continue: “Didn't you hear me? You look like a loser.” Respond by saying, “You might be right, but it will grow back.” This technique is assertive rather than rude.
Freud argued that people cope with negative views of themselves by perceiving other people as having those same traits. Researchers have discovered that threatened self-esteem drives a lot of aggression.
There are various reasons why you may feel that you're engaging in mean or rude behavior, even if they're not immediately apparent to you. For example, an underlying mental health condition, a lack of social skills, cultural differences, or low self-esteem could all be potential causes.
It includes: arrogance, deception, delusion, dishonesty, ego, envy, greed, hatred, immorality, lying, selfishness, unreliability, violence, etc. In ancient Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna lists the qualities which make a person more and more inhuman as hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, cruelty, ignorance.
When someone is rude, our brains interpret it as a threat. The result is a sudden increase in irritability, stress, and altered decision-making. Several studies have shown that exposure to people who are rude, or verbally unkind, changes an individual's creativity and hinders their cognitive abilities.
When someone is being what we consider socially inappropriate, can we point it out? The answer is yes, but we must acknowledge that rude shouldn't beget rude. Changing the subject, gracefully leaving a conversation or simply tactfully asking the person to lay off the behavior can be acceptable.
Just say, “Leave me alone” or “Please leave me alone from now on.” Though this won't be pleasant, the sooner you get the message across, the better. If this is someone whom you really need to be firm with, then you shouldn't waste time on small talk. Look the person right in the eye and show that you're not afraid.
How do you tell someone off in a professional way?
"The best is what we call the DESC approach. Describe the situation, in detail, explaining what the problem is, and why. Make sure you have evidence to back this up. Then offer a solution - what you want them to do, and then the consequences: what will happen if they do - and don't do - as you ask."
