8 Biggest Irritations In Life Explained By Science

5. Hearing Half A Phone Conversation

There's nothing worse than getting settled in for a long train journey, when a fellow passenger pipes up for a good, long natter with their friend over the phone.

It turns out that hearing one half of a phone conversation, a "halfalogue", is more distracting that hearing two people have the same conversation. In one study, participants were asked to solve anagrams whilst another person conducted either a phone call or an in-person conversation. The participants didn't know that this was the point of the experiment, but they still reported afterwards that they felt much more distracted by the phone call.

It's thought that this is because, when you eavesdrop on a halfalogue, your brain tries to fill in the blanks of the conversation whether you want it to or not. In a two-person conversation, they do this for you, negating the need for you to mentally weigh up every possible response.

They say knowledge is power, but in his case, this probably doesn't make you want to stab them with a fork any less.