The typical adult finds themselves in four awkward or embarrassing situations a month - because they’ve misheard what someone has said. Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care found a fifth of us have asked for directions which we then got completely wrong, while 14 percent have made an error at work after not hearing what was said.
However the study found the average adult is only willing to ask someone to repeat themselves twice before things become too awkward. As a result 67 per cent have resorted to pretending to hear what’s been said, because they are too embarrassed to ask again.
Common responses include simply nodding, making a neutral response such as “hmmm” and laughing under the assumption they’ve been told a joke.
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