Perhaps not the most neutral of polls

[chayam]

Imagine two people are having a nasty yelling ferocious "one'helluva" fight. Cruel, hateful, and vicious words are spoken; the people are furiously angry and one is possibly crying and distraught. Suddenly a third person knocks on the door; the fighting people open it. One of them strikes up a jovial, friendly conversation--"Hey, Joe! Good to

Comments

[capriciouslass]

This was a hard one. I try to keep from letting my emotions leak through to "innocent bystanders," but I know there are times when it happens.
However, I've found being able to cover and pretend is a good survival skill for social situations and have been working on cultivating it.

[cos]

More annoying to whom?

Clearly, both behaviors are annoying to each other when they mismatch like that. The one who can't pull themselves together is "more annoying" to the visitor, who doesn't know what's going on. To the cosmos in general?

Well, if both people pretended for the visitor, that would annoy neither of them.
If neither of them pretended, that would suck for the visitor, but probably be okay for both of them.
If they mismatch, it's somewhat awkward for everyone.

What's going on inside their heads, though, the neutral observer can't tell. So it's hard to laud or condemn either behavior.

[mantispid]

Being able to switch gears and suppress or redirect emotions is indeed a valuable skill.