Similar annoying occurrences are often depicted on the ‘Mildly Infuriating’ subreddit, which currently boasts over 7.4 million members from all over the place. For many of them, the sub is a source of comfort that they’re not alone in being annoyed by the daily inconveniences in life, and if you’re curious to see what said inconveniences entail, scroll down to find some examples on the list below; but do it at your own risk, as they might leave you mildly infuriated, too. Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with Emeritus Professor of Psychology Joseph Hellige and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at The University of Delaware, Philip Gable, who were kind enough to answer a few of our questions about why we find certain things mildly infuriating. “In said examples, networks in the anterior cingulate cortex and connected regions activate when our expectations are violated, when we see or experience something different from what we expect,” Emeritus Professor of Psychology Joseph Hellige explained. “As simple as a gap when we didn’t expect one and as complicated as an insult when we expected praise. Registering a deviation from expectation is largely automatic.” “Potentially, the person could perceive that there is a disconnect between what we think is involved, and how we expect things to be. The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in error detection and could be sending the ‘something is wrong’ signal. After that, it is likely how we think about the situation that causes us to hold on to it as negative or bad.” According to the expert, the seemingly minor annoyances vary from person to person based on context and life experience. “One person’s annoyance can even be another’s pleasure. The dissonance in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring might grate on my nerves but be beautiful to a more trained mind.” “The level of irritation also tends to increase when a person already feels stressed or is overly tired. Parents know this well; the never-ending questions from our three-year-old are a pleasure when we’re well-rested and unhurried, but after two nights of little sleep with a work project overdue, the same behavior becomes irritating.” “Try to look at it more objectively: ‘in the long run, correcting that problem wouldn’t really matter and might make things worse’. The annoyance may come from the person making a subjective judgment - if they can reduce their judgements, it will likely affect them less.” “Try to keep things in perspective,” the professor of psychology continued. “Very few things are actually matters of life and death, but we have inherited some brain regions that aren’t so good at telling the difference. Fortunately, other regions, like our prefrontal cortex, work to slow us down, be reflective, and moderate the effects of some of those other regions. Take a deep breath, and let your prefrontal cortex do its work.” “Every day is full of small annoyances. If we can’t control our negative reactions to those small annoyances, then it will completely lower our well-being. Letting go of the things we cannot change would be helpful at maintaining one’s well-being,” Dr. Gable suggested. Luckily, the pictures of mildly infuriating things are arguably not as stressful or annoying as having to deal with such things in real life. So if you feel like they don’t affect you or you know that you can manage your emotions, continue to our previous collections of mildly infuriating things here and here and see what other things might make fellow netizens somewhat infuriated. Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
