Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us

ISBN: 0470638699

Author: Palca, Joe

Condition: New

Two crackerjack science journalists from NPR look at why some things (and some people!) drive us crazyIt happens everywhere?offices, schools, even your own backyard. Plus, seemingly anything can trigger it?cell phones, sirens, bad music, constant distractions, your boss, or even your spouse. We all know certain things get under our skin. Can science explain why? Palca and Lichtman take you on a scientific quest through psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and other disciplines to uncover the truth about being annoyed. What is the recipe for annoyance? For starters, it should be temporary, unpleasant, and unpredictable, like a boring meeting or mosquito bites Gives fascinating, surprising explanations for why people react the way they do to everything from chili peppers to fingernails on a blackboard Explains why irrational behavior (like tearing your hair out in traffic) is connected to worthwhile behavior (like staying on task) Includes tips for identifying your own irritating habits!How often can you say you're happily reading a really Annoying book? The insights are fascinating, the exploration is fun, and the knowledge you gain, if you act like you know everything, can be really annoying.From the Authors: What Annoys You?Consider the following story, posted on the Ghana News website on February 11, 2011:Annoying 'alarm' was missing parrotA woman who complained a 'fire alarm' had been sounding non-stop for seven days has discovered the noise was made by a missing parrot.Shanna Sexton, 25, said she was "pushed to the edge" by the high-pitched tone and even called in workmen to try and locate the problem. But the mystery was solved when she finally spotted the African Grey Congo parrot perched on a water butt as she hung out washing in the garden. The noisy parrot, called Sammi, had escaped from neighbor Louise Ledger's house a week earlier and spent seven days in the garden mimicking a smoke alarm.Miss Sexton, from Torquay, Devon, said: "I'd been hearing the noise for ages. I looked around the house checking everything. I even pulled out the washing machine. "In the end a workman said it sounded like it may be my smoke alarm. We had problems with our smoke alarm before and I thought 'here we go again'. It was driving me mad but I just could not find out where it was coming from."This could well be the quintessential story highlighting what science can tell about why things are annoying. It captures the three Us. Unpredictable, unpleasant and of uncertain duration.Unpredictable: Ms. Sexton couldnt tell when the noise would occur. Every so often Sammi would let loose with the high-pitched squeal of a smoke alarm, but if his schedule for shrieking wasnt truly random, at least it was known only to him.Unpleasant: A smoke alarm is designed to be unpleasant. If smoke detectors made a sound like tinkling chimes or chirping birds, we would simply ignore it. No, the idea is to get you up off the couch to shut off that annoying racket before you are engulfed in flames.Uncertain duration: The reason Ms. Sexton was pushed to the edge was there was no way of knowing when the sound would stop. After each screech ended, she must sure have said to herself, thats got to be the last one, only to find to her dismay it wasnt.With Ms. Sextons troubles in mind, we asked a few of our colleagues, at NPR and beyond, what annoys them.Christopher Joyce, NPR Science CorrespondentMy personal most annoying annoyance is worse than yours. It's worse than anybody's. You know why? Because it nails me when I'm asleep. You, you can be annoyed all day long but you can go to bed at night knowing that except for a noisy neighbor or his dog, or a mosquito in the air, or a lumpy bed, you've escaped the daily mine-field of annoyance. Not me.No, when I go to bed, I enter the annoyed man's nightmare--the recurring dream. The details change but the theme is always the same. I'm trying to get somewhere important. I'm tryi