Yesterday on the bus I overheard a young man on his cell phone telling someone that he had agreed to let a stranger shave his head and that he was going to get $150 for it. Intrigued, I actively tried to listen, to learn more.
Why was this one-sided conversation not annoying or grating? Was it merely a matter of volume and content - he spoke at a normal level and had unusual things to say - or was he just a fluke exception to my hypothesis: a pair of people talking on the bus is never as annoying as the sound of one person on his cell phone?
I would like to see a study wherein participants must ride a bus and listen to two people talk in the next seat and then listen to one person talk on her cell phone. It would be the same conversation topic, with some identical words or phrases, and then the participants would rate their level of annoyance. I would like to see if my theory holds up.
And then there's the otherwise-charming kid who emitted the sound "Ahhh" continuously for 3 minutes on the # 5 yesterday. You win, kid.
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