Science reveals the Irritating, the Picky and the Arrogant: take the free assessment
We have something a little light and fun to start off the summer of 2011. . .
I had the opportunity recently to work with Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman of National Public Radio’s Science Friday. They recently published the book, Annoying—The Science of What Bugs Us. Joe’s interviews with people about what makes some so annoying had led him to our colleague Bob Hogan, whose Hogan Development Survey is all about how people can unintentionally derail their reputations and careers.
So we all worked to develop a short survey, sent it out to a few hundred of our closest friends and developed the "Annoying Inventory." When we got the results, we did a quick factor analysis and found that annoying people fall into three categories: Irritating, Picky and Arrogant.
The "Picky" person has a detail focus and often the micromanager’s “my way or the highway” approach to working with others. "Arrogant" people are, well, arrogant. They criticize others’ efforts and like to be the focus of attention. People who can’t trust others or who are hard to please are in the "Irritating" category. It’s all very annoying.
Palca writes: What is the recipe for annoyance? For starters, it should be temporary, unpleasant, and unpredictable, like a boring meeting or mosquito bites. For example, why is that guy talking on his cell phone over there so annoying? For one, it’s unpleasant and distracting. Second, we don’t know, and can’t control, when it will end. Third, we can’t not listen! Our brains are hardwired to pay close attention to people talking and follow the conversations. The loud chatter pulls our brains away to listen to half of something we’re never going to understand.
In Annoying—The Science of What Bugs Us, Palca and Lichtman look at annoying behaviors at work, in politics, sports, science and, yes, even romance.
How annoying are you? You can find out for free by taking the assessment here.
We’ll compare your answers to the current norms for Arrogance, Irritating-ness and Pickiness, and tell you where you rank on general Annoyingness.
