[thenoblesunfish]

Americans tend to have larger, more casual social circles, probably. Having hosted parties in both the U.S. and Europe, the "flake rate" in Europe is much smaller, but the parties are also smaller, less frequent, and planned further ahead of time.

[teiferer]

"Europe"? I can assure you, the party cultures in Spain, Scandinavia, France and Greece are all pairwise so dramatically different that the U.S. are not the counterpole, but just another flavor in the sea of possibilities. The same applies to different cultures within these countries. Across areas, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, political leanings, hobby groups.

It's astonishing to me how many comments around here are lumping everything together under specific nationalities.

[IanCal]

I’m always amused by this. The US has a hugely diverse set of attitudes to things and yet a surprising number of people there then look at a more populated combination of more than 25 countries with varied languages and histories who have fought many wars over history against each other have some singular approach to parties or cycling or anything else.

[johnnyanmac]

we have different culutures but Americans also have decades of media exposure to inform them on what an "American party" is. Especially if you grew up in the late 80's/90's where "party" was a literal genere of movie to subscribe to.

Now of course, media doesn't reflect reality. But it can certainly homogenize sentiment.

[thenoblesunfish]

Fair point, I didn't mention where in Europe I live. (The German-speaking part which is maybe the part I'm generalizing about).