The old adage may tell us "to err is human," but to annoy may be just as human.
Experts have studied what sorts of things we as people find annoying and why it is we
find them so grating.
Here are the most common infuriating habits most of us do.
If you've ever sat beside someone who shakes their legs, you likely had a hard time concentrating
on anything else.
In an article for Psychology Today, Susan Whitbourne, professor emerita of psychological
and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explained that anxiety, something
everyone experiences, can be one cause of jittery legs.
"Nervous?"
"Yes."
"First time?"
"No, I've been nervous lots of times."
The expert added:
"Your legs are the largest area of your body, so when they move, it's pretty hard for others
not to notice."
Although most people can work to stop this habit, seven to ten percent of people in the
United States can't just turn off their jittery legs.
Those with restless legs syndrome, a neurological sensory disorder, experience "unpleasant or
uncomfortable sensations in the legs and an irresistible urge to move them," according
to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Eating can be a pretty wonderful experience, but nothing kills your appetite faster than
sitting next to someone who is slurping soup, open-mouth chewing, chewing loudly, scraping
their utensils across their teeth, or otherwise being a dinnertime dingbat.
Yeah, that's annoying.
But as it turns out, it might not be the person eating who's to blame.
You may be dealing with a condition known as misophonia.
Medical News Today explained,
"Misophonia is a disorder where people have abnormally strong and negative reactions to
the ordinary sounds humans make, such as chewing or breathing."
These reactions can, quote, "range from anger and annoyance to panic and the need to flee."
While not everyone who finds themselves annoyed at eating sounds is suffering from misophonia,
a person with the disorder is much more likely to experience severe emotional distress as
opposed to mild irritation.
There's nothing quite so jarring as having a conversation with a close talker.
At the outset of the convo, you don't realize things are about to get so weird, but…then
they do.
They get so weird.
So if we all hate having people talk right at our faces, why do some people do it?
Neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology discovered a link between the
amygdala region of the brain and personal space.
The researchers noted that a woman with a damaged amygdala did not recognize others'
preferences for personal space.
"I care about my personal space.
Whoa!
Hey, who's around me right now?"
But it might not just be about the brain.
Cultural differences could also be at play.
Daniel P. Kennedy, a professor of biology and a co-author of the study, explained in
an interview with Caltech, saying:
"If you're in a culture where standing close to someone is the norm, you'd learn that was
acceptable and your personal space would vary accordingly."
Have you ever listened to a story or a speech that was so full of pauses that it was almost
impossible to pay attention?
Steven D. Cohen, an instructor at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education and a leading
communication expert, admitted:
"It is difficult for me to watch political speeches.
After all, I know that I am going to hear one alarming word over and over again."
That word, he revealed, is "um."
"Well we're gonna, um, have to, um HM, fly their alien craft out of our atmosphere and
dock with it."
These little filler words have been dubbed "word whiskers,'' a fitting name for a pet
peeve.
Public speaking expert George Burney revealed on his site that such words are "useless"
in public speaking.
He clarified, writing,
"No, they're worse than that, they're annoying and they detract from your presentation."
Using filler words or word whiskers in our speech isn't the only thing that drives people
crazy.
Hank Davis, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Guelph in Canada, highlighted,
quote, "the uptalk epidemic" in an article for Psychology Today.
He explained that uptalk is the "ever-growing tendency to end statements with upward inflections
to make them sound like questions."
Davis revealed that he started noticing the speech pattern in Canada in the early aughts,
adding:
"Some argued that uptalk had begun as a form of Valley Girl-speak."
"Shut UP!"
But although there is no clear origin, he noted the manner of speaking spread from Canada
to the United States and across the pond to England.
Of course, Davis isn't the only one infuriated by uptalk.
In a survey of 700 managers, executives, and business owners, 71 percent found uptalk to
be a "particularly annoying trait" and a whopping 85 percent thought it was a, quote, "clear
indicator of a person's insecurity or emotional weakness."
Sorry?
Ever stop and wonder why so many guys seem to spit pretty much as soon as they step outside?
Well apparently, it's not just to gross everyone out.
"Eddy, Jesus."
Susan Maples, dentist and author, explained the phenomenon when speaking to Women's Health.
"It's purely cultural: Some guys spit because they grew up thinking it's cool and didn't
get chastised the way girls might for spitting.
Others develop the habit from spitting out chewing tobacco."
"Why they call it chew and not swallow, amirite, Ron?"
"Yes, you are right."
As it turns out, though, there may also be a biological reason why men are more likely
than women to spit on an unsuspecting sidewalk.
One 2006 study found that healthy men had larger salivary glands than healthy women.
As such, they often experienced a higher flow rate of saliva, leading to the urge to spit
more often.
"Filthy buggers.
They smell, they bite, they spit."
You may love chewing a piece of Big Red or Dubble Bubble, but what about listening to
someone else smack their chewing gum or pop bubbles?
It's possible you just find the sound a little irritating, but those with misophonia may
feel like this is some kind of torture.
Mouth sounds are especially triggering to those with the condition, and the sounds from
chewing gum are certainly not excluded.
In addition to misophonia, other people also experience chiclephobia, or the fear of chewing
gum.
Those with this phobia may be terrified of the stuff and find it completely gross.
While chiclephobia is not a common fear, some think Oprah Winfrey may be chicleophobic because
of her stance on gum.
She once told People:
"I hate chewing gum.
It makes me sick just to think about it.
When people chew loudly or smack it and pull it out of their mouth, that's the worst."
Millions of Americans bite their nails.
This is true even though science has told us how gross, and bad for us, it is.
So, why, despite all of the evidence, do a lot of us still engage in this totally frustrating
and destructive habit?
Much like nicotine, experts believe there's a biphasic effect to nail-biting, which means
it can work as a stimulant or a depressant depending on the circumstance.
It is possible to curb this habit, though.
Fred Penzel, a psychologist who works with patients with body-focused repetitive disorders,
told Vox:
"We try to identify all the triggers and control them in various ways, either by blocking them
or by finding substitutes."
If you're a knuckle-cracker, your mom may have warned you that if you didn't stop, you'd
end up with arthritis.
However, we now know that's not true.
Harvard Health Publishing revealed that even though it's kind of annoying, popping your
knuckles probably doesn't raise your risk for arthritis.
Take that, Mom!
"Game on."
"Game over."
But what is happening when you crack your knuckles?
The science behind it may make even those of us who have this habit squeamish.
Essentially, cracking your knuckles increases the space between your joints.
In turn, gas bubbles in the joint fluid burst.
Robert Shmerling, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, explained:
"Cracking the knuckles is probably harmless.
Although there have been occasional reports of dislocations or tendon injuries from overly
vigorous knuckle cracking, such problems seem very much to be the exception and not the
rule."
So basically, it sounds gross, and is gross, to some people, but it probably doesn't hurt
anything.
It seems every meeting has its designated pen-clicker.
If you've ever come close to hulking out in the middle of the workday over this incessant,
irritating noise, we hear you.
And if you've ever envisioned throwing all of the pens out of your office window, well,
there's a reason for that.
Although many people with misophonia are triggered by mouth noises, pen-clicking can be just
as infuriating.
Medical News Today reported that "clicking a pen can make them want to scream or hit
out."
Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this condition, though you could argue that people
should, you know, just stop constantly clicking their pens.
Likewise, it's also important to remember that someone with misophonia can't simply
forget about the sound.
In fact, the publication said telling someone to ignore the annoying noise is akin to "telling
a person with depression to 'snap out of it.'"
Not only is it insensitive, but it also won't work.
It's hard to have a conversation with someone who constantly interrupts you.
Although we may all be guilty of doing this at times, some have made it a habit.
And they may not even have realized this is the case.
"This is lovely-"
"-Excuse me Bon Jovi I'm in the middle of a conversation here."
"Yeah but you said to-
"-THANK you."
One Reddit user posed the question: "What's a bad habit you never knew you did until someone
pointed it out to you?"
Of the thousands of responses, "interrupting people" was a big one.
One user admitted,:
"I always interrupt people and ever since it was pointed out to me I've been shocked
by how often I've had to stop myself butting in."
Rhonda Scharf, a professional speaker, admitted in an article for HuffPost that she also possesses
the, quote, "incredibly annoying habit" of cutting off other people while they're talking.
Yet she believes this habit can, and should, be broken with a little awareness and effort.
"Go faster."
"Can you stop interrupting me?"
"If you just-"
"Yeah, okay, thank you, anyway..."
How often do you borrow things without returning them?
While we've all probably forgotten about a library book or two, borrowing something from
a friend and then failing to return it is a habit that most definitely causes frustration.
People notice when they don't even get the little things, like pens, returned to them.
"I keep bringing pens, and you guys keep taking them, and I'm afraid I'm putting my foot down."
Even if your friend never brings up the time you borrowed her little black dress and never
brought it back, there's a good chance she remembers, and that memory isn't a fond one.
Regardless of how you feel about talking on the phone, we can all agree that hearing someone
else's phone conversation is beyond annoying.
But why is that so irritating?
In an excerpt from the book Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, Lauren Emberson,
a psychology graduate student, revealed:
"I think the reason why is that we can't tune it out.
We find it more rude than someone having a conversation around us because our attention
is drawn in and that makes us irritated that we can't be doing the other things or thinking
about the other things that we want to."
Emberson dubbed this phenomenon "halfalogue" and found that no matter how hard we try to
ignore these quite literal one-sided conversations, we can't.
According to Emberson, our minds are hardwired to try to predict what's coming next, but
that is really difficult when you're only hearing one half of a conversation.
Still, the brain will continue to try to process the information it's been given, and annoy
us in the process.
Thanks for nothing, brain.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more List videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.