Annoying: the science of what bugs us by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman. 262 p.
This book is written in an entertaining, easy-to-read style, and I enjoyed it. It investigates various scientific fields that have relevant studies--why certain sounds and smells are almost universally annoying, and why that might be. The animal behavior studies discussed were really interesting, but I think my favorite section was on how to develop an empirical scale for measuring something personal, like pain (or annoyance)--how do you know that one person's "10" on a scale of 1 to 10 is the same as another's?
Basically this book gives an overview of a lot of scientific studies that are possibly related to sudying annoyance. I enjoyed all of the byways that the book explored, so I had a good time. Sadly, it did not give me any solutions to any of the ongoing annoyances in my life. (Not that it promised to do so, but one can always hope.)
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