Why Hearing Someone Talking On A Cell Phones Is So Irritating

Ok, we have all felt it, the urge to smack someone who is talking loudly on their cell phone while you are trying to concentrate. Ever wonder why someone talking on a cell phone bothers you but two people carrying on a conversation next to you doesn’t? Wired reports that Lauren Emberson, a psychology graduate student at Cornell University is studying the topic and says that “Overhearing someone spewing intermittent exclamations into a handheld gadget lacks the predictability of hearing a two-way exchange and thus proves inherently unsettling.”