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LONDON - Highly-paid footballers and celebrities are setting a bad example, according to the survey, which listed spitting and swearing as the most offensive forms of behaviour.
Almost nine out of 10 people - 86.2 percent - think Britons have become ruder than a decade ago, according to the poll for the ITV1 Tonight television programme.
"I suppose it's part of the breakdown in society, the fact that we stopped having respect for figures in authority, partly because those in authority didn't command it," said Diana Mather, an etiquette coach.
Britons traditionally liked to think of themselves as superior to foreigners at things like queuing and giving up their seats on public transport to disabled people or pregnant women.
But the rise of football culture and football hooligans creating mayhem has long dented this image abroad, and now Britons themselves acknowledge that they have a major problem.
More than half of those asked 56.5 percent thought bad manners were the biggest problem in the country, according to the survey based on answers from some 2,800 adults.
Spitting caused the most offence for 27.6 percent, ahead of swearing by 20.2 percent, followed by queue-jumping, talking loudly on mobile phones, not saying "please" or "thank you," and belching or passing wind in public.
Nearly 75 percent of Britons think the behaviour of celebrity footballers encourages bad manners in society.
But when asked to name the worst influence on children's manners, 63.8 percent blamed the behaviour and lack of discipline of parents, with over 90 percent saying parents are failing to pass on basic manners to their children.
Some 15.9 percent said celebrities and footballers were the worst influence, followed by 5.4 percent for television programmes.
"I think my generation has a lot to answer for because I think the youth culture in the 60s and early 70s threw out every rule book and thought it was really clever to use four letter words and so on," said Esther Rantzen, patron of Campaign for Courtesy.
"But I think things should go back, not to the old deference, not to grovelling, not to any of that, but just to feeling respect, because I think that would make everyone's life pleasanter." - AFP/ar
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