The Coughing Plague.

[Grammour Boy]

File this under Sociobehavioral Sciences.

Why is it that if you have a roomful of people like an audience or something...why is it that if there's a momentary lull of silence in such an audience one or several people suddenly have an uncontrollable urge to cough or to clear their throat? And usually this is contagious...first one, then another and another, and before you know it the beautiful silence which had heretofore graced the room is spoiled and vanishes.

Interesting experiment: If you select one or several of the people that coughed or cleared their throat in the audience...if you take them and isolate them individually in a room (one to a room) they can go hours on end without once coughing or clearing their throat.

So why the hell did those people only have a need to clear their throat whenever there is a momentary lapse of silence in a crowded room? But not when they are alone.

Did you ever think about why that is?

I have been thinking about this phenomenon for the last 8 months and I am ashamed to admit that it has consumed nearly three-fifths of my free time.

 

[Grammour Boy]

oh my goodness!!

the intellectualism here is non-existent

i could not find one soul to discuss with me the merits of coughing in a public space

oh my god!!

this whole thread flew over the head of the tk membership

why am i not surprised?

 

[Grammour Boy]

BUMP

 

[The Question]

The reason is simple -- the average human being finds silence intimidating. This principle is so well-known, in fact, that a long-standing interrogation technique involves simply walking into the room with the subject of the interrogation and remaining silent until his discomfort forces him to begin speaking. Once he begins speaking, the principle holds (and has proven out many, many times) he will not stop speaking until he has volunteered at least part of the information you're after.