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.
Greed, lack of empathy. Same thing.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 November 2025 source ↗
Being two-faced.
Serially telling endless boring jokes and sexism and racism and homophobia (they often go together).
Telling me the menu is only accessible through the QR code.
An inability to see the other side.
Leaving the stage from a panic attack in my 20s. Hearing the audience angry.
To kids I bullied in school. I have apologised and I will continue to. To repay those things karmically, I will watch my kids’ hearts like a hawk for signs of hardening or any distortions of empathy that they might develop.
Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
A lifelong sleepover.
I’m not thrilled with my lack of commitment to feminism in my 20s.
I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.
John Malkovich, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Trevor Noah, Richard Schiff, Indira Varma, Matthew Modine
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