为什么事情这么令人恼火呢？

Nails on a chalkboard. A fly buzzing around the room. A child having a tantrum in the next apartment. The drip-drip-drip of a leaking faucet. An overheard cell-phone conversation in a public place. Most people would agree that these things are amazingly annoying, but what is it about them, exactly, that irritates us so much?

黑板上有钉子。一只苍蝇在房间里嗡嗡地叫。隔壁房子一个小孩在发脾气。水龙头漏水的滴答滴答声。公共场所电话聊天的串音。大部分人觉得这些事情非常令人讨厌，但是它们究竟是怎么了，真的让我们那么生气吗？

According to "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us," some sounds, like the screech-squeak of nails on a chalkboard or the high-pitched drone of a mosquito near one's ear, are irritating because we react to them in a physical way. "It seems to be something intrinsic about that mix of frequencies," said Flora Lichtman, co-author of "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us," in a recent interview with NPR. "The change in volume rapidly—it's called 'rough' in acoustics—most people's ears don't like that stimulus."

根据《恼人：惹怒我们的科学》，一些声音，如黑板上钉子的吱吱尖叫声或一只蚊子在耳朵边的嗡嗡尖叫声，都非常恼人，因为我们身体对这些的反应。“这似乎是一些关于频率混合的内在东西。”《恼人：惹怒我们的科学》合著者Flora Lichtman在最近一个NPR的访问中说。“音量迅速改变——声学中称为‘粗’——大部分人不喜欢那种刺激。”

We all react to sounds, sensations, and situations differently because of our personal experiences, cultural differences, and emotional associations. But in general, the things that annoy us tend to have three things in common, regardless of our personal histories: Unpredictability, unpleasantness, and uncertainty. A perfect example? The over-heard cellphone call.

我们对声音，感觉和情况的反应不同，因为我们的个人经历，文化差异和情感联想不同。但是总体上，不管我们的个人史多么的不同，使我们感到生气的事都有三个共同点：不可预测性，不愉快和不确定性。一个完美的例子？打电话时的串音。

It's not just the fact that it's rude, points out Lauren Emberson, a psychology graduate student at Cornell University who has studied the annoying nature of "halfalouges"—when you hear only one side of a conversation. It has to do with the way we process information. "Our brains are always predicting what's going to happen next, based on our current state of knowledge—this is how we learn about the world, but it also reflects how we are in the world," she says. "When something is unexpected, it draws our attention in, our brains tune into it because we're this information-seeking, prediction-loving cognitive system."

这不仅仅是没有礼貌，康奈尔大学一名心理学研究生研究了“一半对话” 的恼人本质 ，即你只听到对话的一面。这跟我们对信息进行加工的方式有关。“我们的大脑总是预测下一步要发生的事，这是以我们当前的知识状态为基础的——这就是我们如何认识世界，但也是对我们在世界上是怎样的反映。”她说。“当发生意外时，就引起大脑注意进行调谐，因为我们处于这种寻求信息，喜欢预言的认知系统中。”

"The thing that's frustrating about a cell phone conversation is that it's very hard to predict, which was one of the things that we found makes something annoying, usually," adds Lichtman. It's unpleasant, because you can't concentrate on other things while your brain is trying to predict the missing parts of the overheard conversation, studies show. And the fact that you know it must end, but don't know exactly when, ratchets up the annoying factor.

“电话对话令人沮丧的是通常很难去猜测我们知道的事情中哪些使我们生气。”Lichtman还称。研究表明，这很不愉快，因为当你大脑试着猜测串音谈话中错过的部分时，你不能集中精力。而且事实上你知道这个对话必须结束，但你不知道确切什么时候结束，这就增加了生气的因素。

In fact, not knowing the reason for something—why your computer is running slowly, why your 8 a.m. flight still hasn't boarded at 8:25, why traffic is at a standstill even though it's not rush hour—can make it seem even more annoying that it would be otherwise.

事实上，不知道一些事情的原因——为什么电脑反应那么慢，为什么早上8点的飞机到8:25还没起飞，为什么即使不是上下班高峰期交通还是停滞了——这些可以使在其他方面也会更生气。

So, what can you to keep your irritation in check? In the book, Lichtman and her co-author, NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca, suggest "cognitive restructuring," where you remind yourself that you shouldn't be annoyed by whatever is pushing your buttons—a baby cries because it has no other way to communicate, for example; that loud coworker is just being her usual, overly perky self. Another trick: Focus on something else. "But that doesn't work very well," admits Palca on NPR's "Morning Edition. "So basically the bottom-line is you're stuck: it's annoying, and that's part of life."

所以，你怎么控制你的恼怒？Lichtman和她的合著者，美国国家公共电视台科学记者Joe Palca在书中建议“认知重组”，提醒自己不要去激发你的恼怒，例如，一个婴儿哭因为他没有其他的沟通方式；那个大声的家伙只是她平常，过度活跃的自己。另一个技巧是关注其他事情。“但是那没有发挥多大的作用。”Palca在NPR《早间节目》中承认。“所以从根本上说底线是你陷入这种情况：这是恼人的，而且是生活中的一部分。”