The question
What trait do you most dislike in other people?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Carelessness of truth and others.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
People who punch down.
Using knowledge as a weapon.
Selfishness—people who don’t care about others or their feelings and will do or say anything as long as they get what they want.
People who barge into a lift instead of standing aside for anyone exiting should be dipped in kerosene and fired into the sun.
Being too thin-skinned.
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
Surprise. Smiles. Courage. Safety.
Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
That I am not wise.
Moments of vanity, carelessness and unkindness.
Barack Obama, Charles Osgood, Bob Schieffer, Malala Yousafzai, Keir Starmer, Nancy Pelosi
Search the directory for somebody in particular.