When it comes to people perceiving US Americans as "superficial", I would say that like Carbuagh mentions, US Americans, tend to not take interactional obligations as seriously as other cultures, like his example with the Finnish, when interacting with others, US Americans tend to mention obvious things (like the weather) and often only initiate conversation when first meeting someone, and feel like a simple wave suffices from then on. That being said, I would agree with Carbaugh that US American culture does shape communication patterns among US people, because US Americans are from a culture that tends to be able to speak freely without many limitations, and because of this we do engage in small talk like the weather, or choose to wave to
