Short Abstract

Irritation is a pervasive feature of human sociality, and shapes relationships, cooperation and morality in many ways. This panels explores the social, cultural and psychological dimensions of mild emotional friction across diverse social and cultural contexts.

Long Abstract

Irritation is a pervasive feature of the human experience, something that plays a major role in relationships of many kinds. We may find ourselves irritated by strangers, of course, but also – and perhaps ever more so – by those with whom we are close, e.g. our spouses, colleagues, siblings and friends. And yet, this important phenomenon has been little studied by social and natural scientists. By one definition, irritation is ‘mild anger’, and it might thus be seen as a minor or secondary emotion by comparison with love, fear, hate, disgust, etc. But the everydayness of irritation – combined with the constraint, in many contexts, against voicing it publicly – can make it a powerful thing. On the one hand, it might be felt that irritation is a threat to our close relationships; that if taken too far it will compromise the very patterns of cooperation and care on which these relationships depend. And yet the pervasiveness of irritation in our everyday experience suggests something else: that in some sense we may need irritation – even that it is a constitutive feature of human sociality.

Why is irritation such a common and constitutive feature of our lives? What role does it play in relation to kinship, cooperation, morality and sociality? To what extent does it vary across space and time? How is it shaped by the highly variable spatial, material, and technical environments in which humans live?

This panel invites contributions that bring new perspectives on human sociality and intimate life by putting mild emotional friction at its centre. We encourage critical and productive engagements across disciplinary boundaries, to explore the cultural, psychological, social and embodied dimensions of irritation.

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