PICTURE YOURSELF AT A CROWDED airport departure

gate. Your flight is 20 minutes late, although the

illuminated sign still says On Time.

The woman on your left is noisily eating something

that smells awful. The overhead TV is tuned to a

celebrity gossip show, a relentless stream of Bieber

after Gwyneth after Miley, plus countless Kar-

dashians. The man to your right is still braying into

his cell phone, and the traveler next to him is prepar-

ing to kill time with ... wait, is that a toenail clipper?

Unless you are saintly or unconscious, a few

things in that description—or many things, or all

the things—are likely to really bug you. We know

an annoyance when we experience it. But from a

scientific perspective, just what makes something

annoying? Are some things universally annoying,

while others are specific to an individual? And does

research offer any advice for preventing life’s annoy-

ances from making our heads explode?

BY JOE PALCA

P

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JANUARY 2020 19