Courtesy costs nothing, but people think Britons are ruder than a decade ago, a survey has shown.

The poll, by ITV for its Tonight programme, also showed that 56.5 per cent of people believe bad manners is the biggest problem in the country with 67 per cent saying it is the root cause of anti-social behaviour in society.

Colin Halstead, Citizenship Tutor at Bradford College, said: "Rudeness seems to be a matter of perception rather than something that can be measured mathematically.

"You could argue that rudeness is linked to other things in society - such as a more competitive world than we used to have."

Of the 2,800 people surveyed, 75 per cent thought the behaviour of footballers encourages bad manners in society.

Mr Halstead said: "There are no end of people who make their name out of being offensive in some way or another, for example Simon Cowell or Ann Robinson where people equate being unpleasant, even nasty, with being smart or clever.

"A lot of celebrities seem to be famous for being rude, instead of being shamed or ostracised for it."

Mr Halstead said it could be argued that every older generation will grumble about the behaviour of the younger generation.

He said: "Maybe it wouldn't much matter when the survey was done, it would always get the same results.

"Personally, I would say that I find a lot of young people in particular to be very polite. It's really encouraging."

More than 90 per cent of those surveyed believed many parents fail to pass on basic manners to children.

Of those questioned, 73.7 per cent said manners should be taught as part of the school curriculum.

Ian Murch, Bradford secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said: "I would be very disappointed if I thought manners weren't taught in schools. It is fundamental.

"Some things work against what we try to do though. Swearing is always on the TV which is such a problem - children are exposed to it so much more than they used to be."

In a separate study, online employment website fish4jobs revealed that rudeness - along with body odour and untidiness - were the most annoying distractions in the workplace.

Joe Slavin, chief executive of fish4jobs, said: "The research shows that UK workers are easily annoyed by their colleagues and the little things do seem to get on our nerves."