The US is a very low context culture. Expectations on how a individual should behave and how information is conveyed is spelled out in words (ex. an airport). Contrast this to a high context culture, found predominately in eastern societies, where similar experiences and cultural norms allow for many things to be left unsaid. Information is communicated by the context a person is currently in, and the culture of the society communicates what is necessary (ex. an expensive gourmet restaurants).

This is typically due to a uniformity of culture over generations. However, the US is a melting pot of cultures, and this diversity is why a unified cultural contexts could not exist.

The result of the US being a high context society is the need for “excess” communication to get meaning across. This comes across as Americans being “loud” to low context cultures where these excess words are superfluous. And is much of the reason why these culture do not understand each other.

This idea is also seen in personal relationships. After couples spend time w/ each other, they start knowing what each other is thinking just by the context they are in. This ability of knowing what the context conveys to the other person is created through sharing of similar experiences. As a couple moves through life, they move into a higher context relationship and while they still communicate as much as they used to, they use words less and less.