That includes stuff that we believe, culturally, is bad luck. So far, so good. But when we get deeper into our peeves — the ones that don't obviously threaten our health or fill us with disgust — we also go beyond these explanations.
Why do we absolutely loathe the noise of nails on a chalkboard? Why do so many people hate the word "moist " or the texture of tripe? What purpose does our revulsion towards these kinds of petty things serve in the grand scheme of human existence besides just bringing conversation to a crashing halt? This is one of the oldest and most commonly documented pet peeves in human history, and there's actually been considerable argument about what precisely makes it so unpleasant, and why we react so badly to it.
There's something special about the particular sound that gives us shivers— but what is it? Some hypothesized that our reaction to the noise is an evolutionary throw-back to a warning noise made by monkeys.
According to a study conducted by an MIT scientist, we hate sounds most when they're either very high frequency which blackboard scraping isn't or "rough" a type of sound where the frequency fluctuates. The theory was that the vibrating, scraping noise of the chalk-scrape mimicked a primitive distress scream by monkeys, which would automatically make us want to scamper to escape danger.
A study by the Wellcome Institute and Newcastle University found that the most unpleasant noise to the human brain is actually a fork scraping against a glass , followed closely by nails on a chalkboard. When researchers scanned the brains of subjects listening to these sounds and eight other distressing ones, they recorded serious activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain that plays a big role in regulating our aggression and emotions.
The bigger the brain response, the more disgusted and unnerved the subjects felt. The scientists thought that perhaps all ten disgusting sounds — each of which had a range of 2, to 5, Hz, striking the ear at its most sensitive — might upset us due to their resemblance to primitive sounds of distress. After all, both women's screams and baby's cries were rated to be in the top ten extremely worrying noises.
However, we seem to have evolved away from registering many other primitive distress noises: a study found that while macaque monkeys hate the sound of nails on a chalkboard, they also hate white noise and other high-pitched noises, which we don't. It's also terrible for the environment, so can we all agree to finally ditch this devil substance and be done with it? When we do it, it's because we have important emails to read or texts to respond to.
But other people staring at their screens, in any context, is just rude and inconsiderate. How dare they? What do they have against human interaction and eye contact?
How did those zombies go through life like that? This includes clipping nails, brushing hair, and applying makeup.
Personal grooming should only be done at home, with the curtains drawn, in complete privacy. It is not an activity that requires or is appreciated by an audience. Whether you're on a city sidewalk or the middle of Disney World, slamming on the foot brakes can have a ripple effect to everybody around you. If you need to stop and take another look at the Disney map to see how far you are from the Magic Castle, or you just want to pause and look up at the big buildings, that's totally cool.
But move to the side and let the natural forward momentum of the crowd continue on without you. Take one step back, Tex. There's plenty of space for everybody to coexist during a conversation without getting so close that you can feel the other person's breath on your neck. If you think you're not being heard, speak up , don't step forward.
However you sneeze in the privacy of your own home is up to you. But when you're surrounded by other people and you feel a sneeze coming on, the polite way to handle it is by shielding your mouth and nose with a hand. Yes, your dog is cute. He was cute two hours ago and he'll continue being cute for the foreseeable future. We don't need to be reminded of your dog's inherent cuteness, or your child's inherent cuteness, or that you read an article in The New York Times and think we should too, or that you have opinions about the latest season of Stranger Things.
Things that aren't posted online really do continue to exist in the real world. What you eat is your business. And similarly, what we put into our mouths is entirely ours. Believe it or not, we're already aware of things like slaughterhouses and heart disease. Nobody eats meat without realizing the risks. We're also aware of the risks of being a vegan, which is apparently becoming totally humorless and judgmental!
OK, in all seriousness: If you're vegan, good for you! The internet is a miracle of modern technology. But suffering through slow connection is like dying a thousand deaths of frustration. How is it possible in that getting an internet connection faster than circa AOL can still seem like such an impossible dream? Listen, it's already been pushed. The elevator or the crosswalk sign is going to do what it's going to do. Your magic touch will not be making anything happen sooner than it was already scheduled to arrive.
People who use acronyms like "LOL" or "OMG" in actual conversation—meaning, where two people are in the same room IRL and not conversing online—are not nearly as clever as they like to assume. Quite frankly, they're the intellectual equals of people who still think it's funny to type into a calculator. Unless this is your very first time in the airport, you are well aware that you need to remove your shoes and take your laptop out of the bag and place all your items in a bin on a moving belt to be X-rayed.
So why do some airline passengers meander through security like they're preteens begrudgingly doing chores? We've all got a plane to catch, can we please speed it up a bit? The left lane is for passing or for cars driving faster than anyone else on the road. It's not a place to cruise at 20 miles below the speed limit because you can't be bothered to get back into the slow lane. When even farmers on tractors are flashing their lights at you, it's time to switch over.
Taking some time away from Facebook or Twitter is a great idea. What's not a great idea is making sure everybody knows your plans in advance thanks to a grand declaration. It's social media, not jury duty. You're not getting a court summons if you don't update your Instagram tomorrow. Would you walk into somebody's house and start rearranging the furniture? No, of course not, that would be rude. So if you're a passenger in somebody's car, leave the radio alone. They're not interested in what music you think should be playing any more than they want to know where you think their living room couch should be.
Memes can be funny. But sharing memes is not a substitute for having a sense of humor. It's not that recognizing the difference between "your" and "you're" isn't important.
It's that pointing out the error when it's not technically your job is always, always obnoxious. For people with celiac disease , a gluten-free diet is what keeps them healthy.
But there are a growing number of people who choose to not eat gluten because it's fashionable. And they delight in making every social gathering more complicated with their gluten demands and fickle dietary restrictions. Not every second of every moment for children has to be filled with educational or entertaining distractions. They can be a passenger in the backseat of a car without a device for 10 minutes.
It might seem like torture to them—and to you, if their whining gets loud enough—but a little boredom will actually be good for them. Nobody who is actually a big deal goes out of their way to make sure everyone around them knows that they're a big deal.
If we don't already know why you're important, no amount of humble-bragging is going to make us suddenly impressed with you. Just be comfortable with yourself in the world, even if that means your fabulousness is not being celebrated.
A case of food poisoning or what the doctor told you about that rash you've had for weeks certainly seems like important information to you, but to the rest of us, it contains details that are strictly on a need-to-know basis.
And let's be honest, we don't really "need" to know any of it. Picking up after your dog doesn't just mean when other people are watching. Nobody wants to step in your dog's business because you couldn't be bothered to lean over and scoop it up with a doggie bag. If it comes out of your dog's rear end, it's your responsibility.
Sure, someone might be tired, but, then again, maybe their face just looks like that. Don't ask anyone if they're tired, or sad, or angry. It's going to come across as insulting and they might just have a resting sleepy face. Why do we have pet peeves? What is another word for pet peeve? What is a peeve mean? Is pet peeve an idiom? How do you use pet in a sentence? What does PET stand for? Is PET short for something? What is a pet phrase?
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