Fastidio. Cosa ci irrita e perché

by Joe Palca, Flora Lichtman, Daniela Alderuccio (Translator)

Suoni, odori, automobilisti, amici, mogli e mariti possono rivelarsi molesti. Quante cose ci infastidiscono? Qualcuna ci sarà senz’altro, ma ci siamo mai chiesti perché? Due giornalisti temerari hanno setacciato la letteratura scientifica alla ricerca di risposte. Fra psicologia e neuroscienze, incontreremo esperti e ricercatori che ci spiegheranno perché alcune situazioni ci fanno andare su tutte le furie; perché, nonostante l’irritazione suscitata da uno sconosciuto seduto vicino a noi che parla al cellulare a voce alta, non riusciamo a fare a meno di ascoltarne le conversazioni; perché amiamo il peperoncino nonostante la bocca in fiamme; perché in un posto sperduto in mezzo all’oceano il fastidio è un perfetto sconosciuto; perché certi suoni ci piacciono e altri li detestiamo; cosa ci accomuna agli animali e alle popolazioni primitive; e qual è la ricetta perfetta per scatenare una crisi di nervi nel malcapitato di turno. Aneddoti strambi e curiosi ci porteranno alla scoperta di eventi e comportamenti fastidiosi in ogni parte del mondo.
La prima volta che saremo sul punto di strangolare il collega che non la smette di ticchettare con la penna sulla scrivania, manteniamo la calma. Tiriamo fuori una copia di questo libro e consigliamogli questa lettura godibile e piacevolmente istruttiva. Quando poserà la penna per prendere in mano il volume, facciamola sparire!
Ironia della sorte, un libro intitolato Fastidio, che parla di unghie sulla lavagna, si legge che è un piacere.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Audiobook, Adult, Neuroscience, Sociology

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Joe Palca is a science correspondent for National Public Radio and the backup host for Talk of the Nation Science Friday. Flora Lichtman is the multimedia editor for Science Friday."

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, this is annoying. It's the second science book in a row that lacks proper definition. What type of annoyance is that? (Hint: It's number 2. Pun not intended, but I'll keep it.)

l) Physical unpleasantness: such as onions making us cry or poison ivy making us itch, are a very old (at least Cambrian) physical part of our evolution. "This minor hurt can become major if you keep doing it so quit!"
2) Plans thwarted: or ruined expectations. We expect/need to get to work in 30 minutes, but road construction springs up unexpectedly & it takes way longer.
3) Conflicts with our value/social system: is also expectation based, but more with people such as public nose picking. These vary a lot between people & cultures, many are learned.

There are a lot of annoyances which are different from things that anger us - maybe - depends on who you ask & that's the part that irritates me. Science should be precise, but nothing about this was. It's not the authors' fault, but it points to a huge hole in our knowledge, even (I suspect) in our language. Scientists say annoyance may be a low level emotion of its own, similar to frustration, or it may be a lower level of the emotion "anger" along with frustration. Rage would be a high level of anger. I can live with that, but I'm surprised that we're still using the same term for both physical & mental reactions, especially after the last couple of chapters since the process is reversed.

Think about it: The grinding of arthritic joints makes a person cranky. Understandable. The pain is causing a bad mental state. BUT in the case of thwarted expectations, whether personal or societal, our annoyance is completely mental. The same smell when labeled differently (cheese or vomit) evokes different reactions. How can such different processes be studied as one emotion? I don't think they are.

Music is really variable & a lot depends on whether the person is conservative or innovative in their preference in this area. (Perfect pitch isn't always a blessing since everything is often listened to as musical notes. Seems to be a combination of genetic predisposition along with proper training at the proper time to develop.)

Smell is another physical annoyance. Paul Krebaum, a scientist who works with skunk scent has a method of dealing with skunk smell since his lab works with strong smells including skunks. They use a really strong hydrogen peroxide (30%?) to scrub hydrogen sulfide from waste gas streams in the laboratory. A friend's cat had run in with a skunk & the standards (tomato juice) didn't work well enough. Because skunk spray is composed mainly of thiols like Krebaum was working with, he suggested bathing the cat in a lightweight version of the lab's solution. Worked like a charm.
- 1 qt. 3% hydrogen peroxide (from drugstore)
- 1/4 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
- 1 teaspoon liquid soap
- Rinse with water
We plan to try this & I'm sure we'll have an opportunity soon since we seem to have at least one dog sprayed a couple of times a year, often more. Marg bought more hydrogen peroxide today. Typically we wash them with dish soap, rinse, rub in baking soda & pour on vinegar. The acid & foaming action strip out most of the smell. Rinse again & wash again with dish soap. Baby shampoo for the face. Cuts down on 95% of the smell, but the dog will still stink when they get wet until they've fully shed. Even 5% isn't pleasant & wet, old-skunked dog... Yuck.

Here's the table of contents. I'm sorry that I didn't comment on each chapter this time.
A Note from the Authors.
Introduction: Cell Phones.
1 A Noise Annoys.
2 A Case of Mistaken Intensity.
3 Fingernails on a Chalkboard.
4 Skunked.
5 Bugged by Bugs An Epic Bugging
6 Who Moved Their Cheese?
7 The Terror of Perfect Pitch.
8 Dissonant.
9 Breaking the Rules.
10 He's Just Not That Annoyed by You.
11 Better Late Than Never Doesn't Apply Here.
12 When Your Mind Becomes a Foreign Country (Huntington's Disease)
13 The Annoyed Brain.
14 False Alarms.
Conclusion.

All in all, it was interesting, but too broad & scattered. Again, not the authors' fault, but the scientists. This is a young, soft, complicated science. I recommend it.

[William Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is annoying.

The premise is intriguing and super-modern or 'in the now', much as texts on the rise of anxiety in the leisure classes was in the early 1900's. However, there is no clear thesis and no solid science or psychology that pinpoints what exactly makes us as humans annoyed. There is a long list of things that are annoying and the sciences behind some of those things- such as the buzzing of a fly or perfect pitch or the smell of a skunk's secretion. But that doesn't exactly explain anything really. Because with every case they study, they have exceptions and counter-cases. Which makes it hard to formulate any one thesis or form any sort of cohesive argument that there is any science or psychology that plays only into annoyance.

The book instead, without meaning to, makes annoyance a part of other emotions and other states of being such as anger. they try their hardest to distance themselves from moving into these other realms by side-stepping them, but without knowing it, the authors are making cases more for anger than annoyance.

Without a clear thesis, the book is just a compilation of random psychological studies and scientific research of fairly quirky and underground topics. For that the book is fabulous. It's like listening to a podcast on NPR. Hearing all of these findings and coming away with new factoids to discuss over dinner. But as anything academic the book brings nothing to the table.

In the end, there appears to be no true evaluation or universal idea of what is annoying or why certain things annoy certain people. It then becomes more a matter of experience, taste and sensitivity rather than a strict scientific study. It is altogether subjective and not a coherent or rational study of science or psychology for itself, but instead, a branch of other sciences and psychologies.

Grade: C-

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't like science, don't read this book, if you are looking for anecdotal stories to confirm your own feelings, this book isn't for you. If you prefer psychology books who tell a good story but lack data, this book is not for you. If you prefer writers who rely on anecdotal stories, who lack any evidence for their claims, such as Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, and David Avocado Wolf to more fact-based scientific writers such as Steven Hawking, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, or Sean Carroll, then this book isn't for you. Not that this book has anything to do with the above authors other than the fact that, like the authors of this book, all of them are able to engage in critical thinking. If you are not about critical thinking, do not start this book. Hopefully that will keep you from giving a good book a poor rating, not because of the quality of the book, but rather because of your own inability to appreciate fact over fiction and entertainment.

This book was EXCELLENT, PSYCHOLOGY DONE RIGHT. If I were not considering other factors, I probably would have given it 4 stars. But I read far too many 1 and 2 stars reviews. I feel certain that many (most ?) of these reviewers would have given 5 stars to the medical medium quack who just put out a best seller, which contains a ridiculous amount of pseudoscience.

This book was well written, well researched, stuck to only the facts produced by good methodology, entertaining, and extremely informative. If you are often frustrated by psych books that cite studies but never seem aware of bad methods, don't cross this book off your list. They did an excellent job of explaining the science of being annoyed. There were a couple times where the methods were a bit in question, but very rarely. Solid piece of work!

I would not normally do this, but I would suggest my fellow critical thinkers bump this up a star in an effort to counteract the negative reviews by the people who picked up this book hoping for a fluff piece and were disappointed when they actually had to learn science.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this book on the library shelf and read it in an attempt to get some secular insight on what I feared was becoming a spiritual problem. I dreaded becoming a grouchy, old woman because routine things and people are getting annoying. I can hardly 'fix' the old or woman, but I do want to be kind and patient. The book was very helpful. There are three types of annoyances: (l) physical unpleasantness, (2) plans thwarted (sleep loss from a barking dog), (3) conflicts with our value system (uncouth habits, inconsiderate acts, norm violations). My insight was to consider an annoyance as I would pain, as a warning signal that something is wrong and it allows one to do something before there is more damage. So: my plan has become to identify the annoyance and why I am annoyed. Then, see if I can change the situation, avoid the situation, or just endure. I have found this approach very helpful, and I'm feeling that annoyances are something I can deal with rather than something out of my control. Perhaps I should rate this a "5" now.

[fruitcake · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you ask me what I find most annoying, 90% of my responses would begin with "people who." People who don't control their children, people who block aisles in the grocery store or stand at the bottom of the escalator, people who think the rules don't apply to them, etc.

This book is 250 pages long, and it discusses the annoyances of smell, insects, and sounds (lots and lots of sounds), but never really arrives at annoying people. It is frequently mentioned that annoyances differ from culture to culture (more on this later), with one of the top annoyances worldwide being cell phone conversations. However, the authors suggest that we find the conversations annoying because we can only hear half of the conversation, and therefore we are trying to fill in the missing pieces to get the full dialogue. I wholeheartedly disagree. I find a cellphone conversation annoying because the person having it is completely inconsiderate of the people around him/her. Do you think the checkout clerk at the grocery store finds a customer's cellphone conversation annoying because he can only hear half of it? No--it's annoying because it's completely rude and suggests that the clerk is not worth your full attention. The FAA once talked about lifting the ban on cellphones on airplanes, and the passengers overwhelming said not to do it. Why? Because no one wants to be on a plane for three hours listening to the cacophony of other people having loud conversations, whether personal or business.

And why do we get annoyed by the inconsideration of others? Because it inconveniences us and because we expect certain manners and social graces, and the mixture of these two things sours our feelings.

The book talks a lot about different studies on annoyances, such as diseases that give people a shorter fuse, or whether or not animals can be annoyed and if they are annoyed by the same things that humans are. I found the most interesting part to be a very short discussion about how different cultures find different things annoying. It talked about how Americans are very me-centric, where we are raised to look out for ourselves and praise independence, while Japanese are told to always look out for the good of the group and never put one's needs above others. Therefore, what is commonplace in America would be perceived as extremely rude and annoying in Japan. Same for a short mention of how time is perceived in different countries and if they are sticklers for being on time.

Even the cover graphic is never addressed. Why do people find Christmas lights annoying? It's not because of a smell or a sound, but because no matter how carefully you put them away, they always emerge in a tangled mess the next year, and it takes forever to undo them. It's not fun, and it can ruin the whole experience of decorating for the holidays.

Anyway, while the book was mildly interesting, it wasn't nearly what I expected and I feel like it really missed the mark. I certainly didn't need a whole chapter to explain to me why skunk smells are annoying (or why they aren't). Maybe next time they could try explaining more of the "people who" aspect.

[Richard]

Personally, I think there’s an epidemic of annoyances around.

The authors of this book, Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman (both of NPR’s Science Friday) tells us in their teaser video (on their website at annoyingbook.com) that there seems to be an equation:

annoying = unpleasant + unpredictable + temporary

which seem to be the key ingredients.

I’m pretty certain from my own experiences that they’re missing something there, and I suspect it’s because there are multiple types of annoyances. What isn’t in their equation is the problem of disappointed expectations.

Sure, the scraping of fingernails down down a chalkboard is irritating, but it usually misses that other aspect. What their equation doesn’t explain very well is the annoyance of the sidewalk — you’re moving along efficiently down a city sidewalk and suddenly you come across a group of people two or three abreast, causally strolling at an a snail’s pace and oblivious to the fact that they are blocking the path. Or that person who unlocks their bicycle from a post and leans it against their body so it blocks that same sidewalk until they finish their little chore. Or the motorcyclist who doesn’t care how staggeringly and obnoxiously loud their exhaust note is on a city street, or the driver that leans on a horn in a parking garage, again oblivious to how it affects anyone other than themselves.

The annoyances I feel more often are based in people’s all-to-frequent insensitivity to the effect of their actions on others when I think they should know better.

Did Palca and Lichtman capture that side of annoying, or only the superficial stuff?

We’ll see.

(Oh, yeah, check out the NY Times review: All About the Invidious Irritants That Irk Individuals .)
­

[Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was supremely interesting! If you like psychology or NPR or are easily annoyed (like me) then you'll find "Annoying" fascinating.

I expected this book to be about the many situations and people we find annoying, but it was largely sensory oriented. In order for the book to work, the definition of "annoying" was broadened to "irritating" or "unpleasant"--especially when it came to our senses of taste, smell and hearing. This was necessary in order to explain the research: largely because the book attempts to span across cultures and also includes animal research in order to find experiences that are universally annoying. The authors really delve deep into the science behind unpleasant experiences. They explain why some experiences become less unpleasant over time and can become something we prefer (like eating hot peppers). While other experiences start out cute and become more annoying as time waxes on (like your partner's quirks).

The authors leave no stone unturned and I guarantee you'll see your surroundings (and that cell phone talker on the bus) through a new lens.

[Litborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the introduction and thought "Ok, let's find out about the science behind getting annoyed!". There were maybe two or three chapters that made somewhat clear arguments, but the rest was just basically claiming that "You get annoyed by X, because it is annoying to human beings." or "Y is annoying because you didn't expect it to fall into your lap." or here's the most interesting one "Some movie characters are annoying but you laugh at them because you aren't them."
It goes without saying that when the previous research on your topic of interest is scant, you really don't have much scientific explanation to build up your argument on. Or maybe I was a wrong audience for this book, I expected more neuroscience than psychology and sociology or even animal science.

[weronika ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
jedne rozdzialiki ciekawsze od drugich, ale ogólnie rzecz biorąc na plus

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Annoyance is a fact of life. (Now, that's annoying!)*

Appropriately enough, while trying to finish the very last pages of _Annoying_ while at a cafe this morning, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed at the loud, non-stop conversation coming from the gabbers at the table next to mine. But, thanks to what I had just read in this book, I knew exactly why my annoyance level was growing!

First off, the event was unpredictable and unexpected. (Normally on Saturday mornings, this cafe is pretty quiet and the conversations from other tables are not such an effort to tune out as was the case with this conversation today.) Second, the conversation was distracting me from my goal of finishing this book. (Couldn't they just keep quiet for five minutes as I read the last few pages?!?) Adding to the annoyance factors were the unpleasant droning qualities of the of the chatters' voices and the uncertainty of when the conversation would end. (If I would have known the droners were going to be leaving soon, it'd would have been much easier to tolerate this temporary annoyance.)

Luckily, I was able to drown out the conversation enough to read the hints in the book's conclusion on overcoming annoyances. I could convince myself that finishing the book wasn't that important and in the grand scheme of things, this temporary distraction wasn't such a big deal. I could try harder to block out the voices and focus intently on the words on these last few pages. Alternatively, I could head-butt the annoyers (as was the approach used by an annoyed soccer player whose story was featured in the book), or at least imagine doing so to help ease my irritation level. Or, I could simply accept the annoyance, and realize that the irritating conversations of others are an inherent feature of cafes.

I pondered these tips for a bit as I looked up from the book and continued my efforts to block out the still-unending conversation. Then, I read the authors' conclusion:
"You could try all of those things, but based on our extensive research, none of these strategies works that well."

Oh great.

Fortunately, the authors were able to provide some relief in the final paragraph of the book:
"So, as a last ditch effort, remember that bad feelings--on the whole--usually aren't so bad. They signal that something is wrong, which throws into relief the things that usually aren't."

And, suddenly, I was no longer annoyed. Or annoyed that I was annoyed. (And, I also realized that the chatters had left the cafe too...but that's besides the point.)

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was funnier than I expected! It's a scientific look at what annoys people. Last night, I watched the video of Ellen taking Michelle Obama shopping at CVS and Ellen behaves like a total jerk, and I was able to think, "Hey, that book was just talking about how we all enjoy watching annoying people on TV, as long as they are lovable enough."

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting look at the science behind annoying things and how annoyance and anger aren't really the same, even though they're similar. But not enough on why annoying things are annoying.

[Stefy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is annoying. It's a long enumeration of annoying thing without a sense. Some chapter are more interesting than others but it's just inconclusive and little informative

[B.A. Malisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. I could be snarky and talk about everything about this book that is a bit annoying, but the reality is that this a strange and interesting start into researching what annoyance is, how it is defined, and what qualities or factors help make something annoying.

Unfortunately, there is not even proof that annoyance actually exists as a true emotion, and that it isn’t just a mislabeled gradient or combination of other emotions, such as a low level of anger or frustration. On a language scale, we all agree annoying exists, and we know exactly which things annoy us, even if don’t all define annoying in the same way. On a science scale, defining annoyance is an entirely different matter.

This book goes off on some long tangents in random directions, and it tries to justify why certain things are so annoying in terms of senses (sounds, smells, tastes, etc). I would have liked more information on the human/behavioral aspects of annoyance than what I got, but this isn’t a bad overall perspective on annoyance. I found some of the side research that is referenced quite interesting, particularly the commentary on those with perfect pitch, even though it wasn’t the kind of information I expected to receive from this book.

The book does try to count/label the different things that tend to annoy people, but the reality is that what is annoying is different to everyone. Sure, there are underlying factors such as pitch/tone, repetition, past experiences, uncertainty, culture, bodily functions, etc, but there’s no way to quantify how much of something it actually takes to annoy a certain person in any moment. Basically, there are so many variables when it comes to annoyance, so there’s no quick answer.

If you were hoping to read this book to figure out what makes people in your everyday life so annoying, just forget it. You’re more likely to figure out what makes you so irritated by others, rather than what makes them so annoying. So what it boils down to is that the human factor controls annoyance. Even when researched, what is attractive to a person in one moment could become annoying to them in the next.

The thought I liked the best is that extreme traits, which are often a strength, can become annoying, because of how often that trait is exposed. For example, someone who is kind and agreeable can later be seen as a doormat, and someone who is strong and outspoken can often, after many times of speaking out, be seen as stubborn or domineering. While these initial traits are admirable, they can start to appear the opposite, the more times someone experiences those. The problem is, those are still good traits in people, but the constant repetition of them becomes tiresome or frustrating to people. In reality, if we appreciate these traits in people, then we should not be annoyed when they display these traits. However, we are human, and our annoyance is not always logical. We are predisposed to be annoyed by the repetition, so sometimes we are annoyed, whether it is fair or not.

One example of this would be when a person says they love how funny their partner is and that he/she is so laid back and doesn’t overreact to anything, but then later they decide that they hate how their partner is immature, makes childish jokes, and doesn’t take anything seriously. In a small dose, these traits were admirable. The repetition is what makes an admirable trait become annoying with time. So basically you are guaranteed to annoy the person you are in a relationship with, and if it’s a fatal attraction, you’re going to annoy them with the very thing you used to attract them in the first place.

Good luck, people. It’s a cold, hard world, and unfortunately, this book did not find that annoyance will keep you warm at night.

Book 45 read in 2018

Pages: 272

PS: If you were not annoyed by my review, then I probably didn’t make it long enough and should have repeated myself a few more times, while humming a dissonant tone, and burning an acidic stick of incense, while standing too close to you. ;)

[Fowl4396 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca was an enjoyable book that I personally really liked. It is a nonfiction book that adds a little humor in neurology. The book is about scientists quest to find out how to scale what truly bugs us through testing their hypothesis.

Throughout the book there are tests performed that I was satisfied with because of their accuracy and variation, so that not all the tests were the same. Many of the tests include how people react to tastes and noises. This was funny for me because I wonder why people would volunteer for something that annoys them.

I also found results to be pleasing simply because that they seemed to be true to the test. Even though there is not really a scale for how annoying something really is. The results really give a good insight of the scientist's purpose for the test.

There was only one thing that I found enjoyable, which was the somewhat high use of large complicated vocabulary. I enjoy trying to learn to new larger vocabulary, but some of the words that the author used in this was just a little over whelming to understand.

Overall, I rate this book a 4 stars and a recommend you read this book if you want to know how to annoy people using simple things.

[Bill L · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read parts of this but was disappointed.
Off the bat they talked about how other people's cell phone conversations can be annoying. But they don't point out WHY people talk so loudly, as if they didn't do any research on the subject. There is a scientific reason -- on land line phones your own voice is fed back to you in the hearing piece, but for some reason cell phones do not do this. We miss that feedback and so think we have to talk louder.
Also they didn't address two pet peeves of mine about language. I want to know WHY it bugs some of us so much when we hear a word mispronounced or misused. It used to be "in regard to your concern", and now everyone's saying "in regards to." Why do i find hearing this so annoying?

[Joe Meservy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. The author is a couple of people on NPR's Science Fridays series. They delve into experiments and anatomy of annoyances--smells, sounds, mental chemistry, etc. They also give ideas on what causes annoyance and anger and what sort of behavior and avoidance we can employ.

In example, they decry public cell phone calls, walk us through considering zoning out of our peripheral attention and focusing on ourselves or behaving in a civil manner. Tough to sum up but certainly clever writing.

I especially liked the portions on experiments with animals getting annoyed, positives on bi-polar disorders, experiments with

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise (what is the science behind why some things bug us) gets bogged down by strained parallels between interesting scientific phenomena and annoying events (e.g., irritated magnetic particles are like irritated laboratory mice, frequency of nails on a blackboard is the middle of human's range of hearing, etc.). In case anyone was wondering, the reason many people find it annoying when strangers talk loudly on their phones in public is because 1: it's rude, and 2: the listener instinctively strains in their head to fill in the side of the conversation they are not hearing.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writing! I'm not less annoyed by things, but I definitely understand better why some things are annoying and the different categories of annoyances.

Good popular science writing is one of my favorite genres, but most of it is short form (magazine or journal articles). And there's a lot of bad popular science writing out there - - a startling number of the books that make the charts only do so because there have to be books on the charts and they happen to be what sold that week, or month, or year. Total dreck.

But this! I could read a sequel. Starting immediately!

[Amy Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.
I was worried this might be a bit dry for me but it was pretty interesting.

Lots of exploration of annoying sounds, tastes, smells - but what I found most interesting were the chapters on annoying behavior.

Also one question that stood out:
Why do we purposely do things that should be considered unpleasant? Think Sad Songs, scary, movies, spicy food, tattoos, roller coasters, etc.
These things, by their very nature, should be considered unpleasant, yet we do them. On purpose. For the pleasure of it.

Humans are weird

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information about what annoys us. I liked most of the examples used by the authors; however, the examples were repeatedly referred to too often for my preference. My takeaway reinforces the notion that between stimulus and response there is a space and we can choose how we react to the stimulus each and every time. Very difficult to now allow ourselves to get annoyed, admittedly, but I do believe we have that choice.

[John Splain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hindsight being 20/20, I'm reminded that Happiness = Reality - Expectations. And, mine were too high for this book. I hoped to glean some scientific insight or have an emotional epiphany about what triggers annoyance, how to short circuit it, or how to better cope with it. There are many meandering stories, small scale studies, and interesting factoids, but no real good takeaways. I caution you that the contents and conclusion are perfectly summed in the title.

[Troy Blackford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous book exploring the concept of annoyance and irritation from every angle. The only thing that bugged me was that this great book wasn't longer! Maybe I just identify with the subject matter...

In all seriousness, you hear from all manner of experts from a variety of fields about what gets on our nerves, and it's really fascinating.

[Spen Cer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I did find it a bit scattered I think that this is just due to how small the scientific field is. I’m glad books like these are starting to come out to question and examine the things we take for granted. Overall was interesting to see where the science is and how we will have to put up with annoying things for years to come.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting tidbits, but overall there seemed to be an annoying (ba dum cha!) lack of concrete explanations for exactly why some things are annoying, especially why they might be annoying to some but not others.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best things about borrowing this book from the library was having a browser tab labeled "Annoying Audiobook". Despite Edge's judgment, the book was quite pleasant and somewhat educational.

[Jay Miraldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact: knowing the scientific reasoning behind your annoyance at the fact that your roommate chews like a cow when they eat doesn't actually make you any less annoyed...
Super interesting book though! :P

[AS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first discovered this book at the giant main library of a big city where I used to live. A funny coincidence (though annoying in the moment) was that I was browsing this book when I started to hear a woman near me being really irritating 😄 She was loudly talking and muttering to herself, with some abrupt noisy outbursts. I snapped at her and felt pretty irritated. In retrospect, I could have been one of the people featured in the anecdotes in the book 😄

Years later, I thought of it again, and decided to look for the book at the much smaller library in the town where I live now. The library here only had it as an audiobook CD. I have a hard time with listening to books, so that was annoying. But I was still curious, so I thought I’d give it a chance.
It turned out to be kind of nicer that way, partly because I could listen to it while doing my physical therapy exercises at home (which are not exactly annoying, but kind of tedious) and it livened that up.
Next, I also realized quickly that this is a book where I didn’t need to read it and soak up all the details, like I normally would try to do with a non-fiction book. I could just listen the best I could and get the gist of it, and that’d be plenty.
There are many interesting stories here, some scientific details that I got the gist of, and as for big conclusions or life lessons… not a ton, but it was a fun listen.
The next time I’m in a bigger city with a bigger library, though, I want to look up the actual book, because there are some details I’d want to look over again, and that’s not very easy to do with an audiobook CD.

Which is annoying 😉

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting thing to learn that not much science has been done on annoyance. And I think that is what made this a hard book to get through. Because there is no dedication to studying annoyance, more like anger/frustration, it is hard to get data in annoyance. Data that actually involved collected on humans seemed to come as a by-product of being ethically unable to make a subject enraged for the goal of researching anger. Animal models are hard to pinpoint as we can't ask was this annoying or angry making we can only go on with behavior. As for the subjects on annoying that was covered. Some seemed appropriate more of the ones involving people as humans tend to have high amounts of human interactions so greater chances for annoyance but others like skunk spray, flies just seemed like annoying things for sure but less interesting than getting down to human habit/behavior ticking other humans off. Another thing about the book is that both authors read the book in audiobook format. Both have easy to listen to voices what was not easy to listen to was the voices changed at random points in the book. There seemed no rhyme or reason to when one narrator would end their section and the other would begin. I could see it at each chapter as a narrator changed but it happened in chapters and well, that was annoying. Maybe a point of the audiobook to make a point of the book? Overall I would rate this a 2.5 out of 5 stars

[Maarten Koller · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Audiobook review] Very nice book. Had no idea this was even a research area and I was amazed to discover all the different ways to get annoyed :). Also I was quite surprised to find so much of what we find annoying is because of our culture. Did you know there are cultures in which it is so extremely not done to show any annoyance with whatever, that if you do show any, you'll get the silent treatment for months(!)? The most annoying thing however was when the book goes on about what is probably the most annoying music (by western standards), which is made by the Mafa people of Cameroon, and I can't find an example! Oh and talking loudly on a cellphone is always annoying, because the brain apparantly hates it when it can only hear one side of the conversation. It tries to fill in the gaps which keeps it occupied and that will distract you (although not everyone to the same degree of course). The hypotheses (or maybe already theory, I forgot) is that this is because it wants to predict what will happen next. Will there be any danger? If it only hears one side it's very hard to do so ergo distraction.
If you like these kinds of facts you'll enjoy this book thoroughly. (And yes there is also a hilarious tip on how annoy one or more people at the same time, and it only costs 15 dollars!)