Are Utahns Too Nice? By Kerry Soper At the risk of offending someone, can I suggest that we Utahns are often too worried about offending someone? Whole generations of us were raised to pleasers, to avoid contention at all costs. There are upsides, of course, to this collective niceness: neighbors will lend you stuff—like food or power tools (maybe even a vital organ). But there are downsides as well: passive aggressivity is a fine art form in many Utah families; we have a hard time saying no to things, like multiple church callings or tedious social events; and opportunists, like summer sales bros, and MLM hucksters, often take advantage of that chronic friendliness. Finally, Utahns sometimes tell dumb, white lies just to avoid awkward conversations. These fibs of convenience sometimes spiral out of control, however, as I learned in this cautionary tale. Back in the mid-1990s, when we moved out of state to attend grad school, I had to furnish an a...