What I've Been Reading

Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca and Flora Litchman.This decade, science has entered exciting domain of quantifying different emotions; let's call it the quest for genetic and neural representation of verbs. Science behind annoying is still in it's infancy but that doesn't make this book any less interesting (there is lot of psychology and less of science). 

• Hedonic reversal - There are things we like to do albeit their annoyance, like eating hot chili. 
• Social exchange theory explains sticking to annoying relationship.
• Since annoyance inversely proportional to empathy; annoyance is also also inversely proportional to Oxytocin
• Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex helps us keep our vigil but ironically it's the seminal force behind being conscious to annoyance (we hate listening to someone talking on a cell phone; since the halflogue makes us curious and in-turn annoys us because of the inability of not hearing the other side of the conversation.)
• TRPAI (transient receptor potential A1) - A receptor for chemical irritants in mammals. TRPAI is found pretty much everywhere that our bodies meet the outside world: gut, nose, eyes, skin. When it signals alarm, the body snaps into operation purge. We have a built a sensor that is tremendously good because it recognizes the property that is damaging. 
• The curious thing about physical irritants is that they produce reactions that are nearly indistinguishable from psychological irritants. The similarities in our responses to chemical irritants and our responses to some of emotional upset are sticking - whether they share some mechanistic similarities is unknown at this point.

Geopolitics of emotions - What is annoying about Americans:
"What annoys people about Americans is that we have this big cheesy smile all of the time, for no apparent reason whatsoever. For an American, a smile says, I'm okay, I'm a good person, I'm in control, and I'm worth knowing. Everybody else thinks, what's the matter with this person? Is this person insane? Why do they have this smile on? They don't know me, why are they smiling at me? In other words, the smile is annoying. They think it's fake, and along with that, what they find really annoying is that American act like they're your best friend after five minutes." 
- Hazel Markus of Stanford


Geopolitics of emotions - What is annoying about Indians:

"So I would have no choice but to sit down, and wait while some servant ran out to get some tea. Then Mr. Kahn would inquire about my wife etc., and all the assembled people would have million questions about my life, America, etc. etc., It would be hard to know how to ask for tomato seeds again. Eventually, after an hour or two, I would decide to risk being rude anyway. I would get my seeds and be on the way, noting that none of the people sitting around the desk had gotten their business taken care of."
- A Geography of Time: On Tempo, Culture, And The Pace Of Life by Robert V.Levine (Neil Altman a psychotherapist in NYC, went to India as a Peace Corps volunteer to help implement some Agriculture practices. Above encounter was based on visit to local horticulture office to get seeds.)

P.S., to feed that schadenfreude in me, I have ordered Annoy-o-tron from thinkgeek.com (check out the letter from a very "satisfied" customer on their website).