National Geographic - USA (2020-01)

(Antfer) #1
The answers to those questions are: We don’t know,
we don’t know, and no.
Annoyance may well be the most widely experi-
enced and least studied of all human emotions. On
what do I base that assertion? About a decade ago,
fellow journalist Flora Lichtman and I made that
claim in a book called Annoying: The Science of What
Bugs Us—and in the intervening years, no one has
challenged us.
After we noted the lack of studies on this topic, did
scholars step up to the plate? Did even one university
create a Department of Annoyance Science ... endow
a Distinguished Chair for Continuing Research Into
Annoyance ... or offer a major in annoying studies?
No. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
It’s not as if the proliferation of things that drive
us crazy has slowed in the past 10 years. Quite the
opposite. Consider the explosive, ineluctable growth
of Twitter: Once a seemingly benign social media
platform, it now intrudes on every sphere of exis-
tence, tempting us to address matters we should
rightly have no interest in. There’s the pandemic of
social media influencers, the unwelcome bounty of
robocalls, and the invasive assault of personalized
and pop-up ads. There’s my personal favorite at the
moment: electric scooters, threatening the well-being
of pedestrians when the contraptions are moving and
forming sidewalk stumbling hazards when they’re
parked. And the list goes on and on: See responses
to National Geographic’s online survey about what
annoys us, on this page and page 22.

WHAT MAKES SOMETHING ANNOYING? Our analysis
came up with three qualities that seem essential.
First: It must be noxious without being physically
harmful. A housefly buzzing around your head is
unpleasant, but it won’t kill you.
Second: It must be unpredictable and intermit-
tent. The loud ticking of an alarm clock or the odor
of a cat litter box may at first be annoying, but with
constant exposure over time, it ceases to be notice-
able. Psychologists’ term for this gradual tolerance
of a stimulus is habituation. Yet when an unpleasant
noise or smell comes and goes, it becomes annoying
each time it shows up.
The intermittent nature of annoyances makes
them hard (if not impossible) to anticipate and thus
to prepare a defense against. If you know you’re going
to be stuck in traffic, you might be able to take it
in stride or bring along a distraction. But when the
slowdown is unexpected, it gets to you before you
can stop yourself.
Third and finally: To be truly annoying, something
has to persist for an uncertain period of time. A flight
that’s delayed an hour is a bother, but tolerable, so
long as it really is just an hour. A flight that’s delayed
and delayed and delayed, with no explanation and
no end in sight, is excruciatingly annoying.

In an online survey, National Geographic
asked readers to name their most
vexing annoyances by category.
Here are some of their responses.
The most annoying technology
Robocalls ... Pop-up ads ... Selfie
sticks ... Other people’s cell phones
... Electric scooters ... Captchas
(typing symbols to prove you’re not
a robot) ... Virtual assistants like Alexa,
Echo, Siri ... “Everything after the wheel.”
The most annoying noise
Buzzing insects ... Barking dogs ... Leaf
blowers ... Open-mouthed chewing ...
Car alarms ... People singing really badly ...
Construction ... Entitled people
screaming ... Knuckles cracking ...
Loud neighbors ... “Being told no.”
The most annoying people
Fakers ... Telemarketers who don’t
stop at the first NO ... TSA agents ...
Line cutters ... Narcissists ...
Low talkers ... Celebrities ... Bigots.

Our annoying
survey answers

EXPLORE | THE BIG IDEA


Joe Palca is a science correspondent with NPR. His ability to
annoy others is legendary.

20 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
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