Values & belief

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

198 answers answered between 1974 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

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.

Add your answer

On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 1 Arts and letters 171 Politics and public life 12 Business and finance 8 Sport 6

Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 20 In their forties 18 In their fifties 29 In their sixties 31 Seventy and beyond 29

Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me

Ed Harris American actor and director

Greed and stupidity.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 August 2007 source ↗

David Hasselhoff American actor, singer, and television personality

Rudeness and racism.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 April 2009 source ↗

Lolita Chakrabarti British actress and writer

Lack of empathy.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 May 2022 source ↗

Ardal O'Hanlon Irish comedian and actor

Lack of self-doubt.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 June 2022 source ↗

Julian Lennon English musician, photographer, and philanthropist

Ghosting, where you are mid-conversation with someone and they disappear off the face of the planet.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 September 2022 source ↗

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen English interior designer and television personality

Other people’s decorating, if I feel they’ve missed an opportunity and just decorated in that wet-cardboard, modern-grey thing. That’s a life not properly lived.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Fay Ripley English actress, television presenter, cookbook author

Being judgmental – how dare they!

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 November 2022 source ↗

John Simm English musician and actor

Arrogance, bullying, meanness – just try to be kind, it’s not difficult.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗

Maggie O'Farrell Irish-British novelist

Interrupting or talking over people. As a stammerer, I am particularly alert to this.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗

Kate Humble

People having really loud conversations on their phones in public places.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2023 source ↗

Jason Donovan

Looking down at other people. I was brought up to treat people as you treat yourself, with respect. The people you meet on the way up are the people you meet on the way down.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 January 2024 source ↗

Indira Varma