Men Who Can't Stand Listening To Anyone But Themselves Talk Usually Share 11 Difficult Personality Traits
Bits And Splits / ShutterstockWe've all heard complaints from our friends about their boyfriends or husbands who never seem to listen to them. It can even seem like men must be worse at listening as a whole.
In fact, research has shown that men actually hear and interpret differently from women, with men listening with only one side of their brain while women listen with both. But there are some men who can't ever seem to stand listening to anyone but themselves with any part of their brain at all, and that is usually far from their own difficult trait.
These men are incredibly frustrating to deal with on multiple levels. It's one thing if a man is truly eager to help you find a solution and can't hold himself back, and quite another when he has absolutely zero interest in what others have to say at all.
Men who can't stand listening to anyone but themselves talk usually share 11 difficult personality traits
1. They're narcissistic
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Men who like to talk more than listen are often narcissistic. Those men not only like to talk, but they like to talk about themselves. Someone who is narcissistic has a strong belief in their own superiority. They can come across as full of themselves and try to project their ideas and opinions onto others.
People who are narcissistic typically like attention. Receiving it validates their own belief in their greatness. One of the reasons they can't stand listening to others speak is that doing so takes the attention away from them.
2. They are arrogant
Arrogance goes hand in hand with narcissism. A man with an inflated ego feels like he is always right. His security in his intelligence can make him overconfident that his viewpoints are more validthan others.
A man's arrogance leads him to believe that people should be listening to him instead of the other way around because he is always guiding others in the right direction. He doesn't want to listen to what others have to say because he already believes his ideas are the best ones out there.
This makes him hate listening to anyone, because it feels like the other person's words are less important than what he has to say.
3. They are dismissive
When men don't let anyone else speak, they dismiss other people's voices from the conversation. Even when they do let others get a few words in, they often push back on what they had to say.
Men who are dismissive try to discredit others' ideas in order to make their own stick. They want to bolster their perceived knowledge and think that by discrediting others, they'll look like they know what they are talking about.
If a person is dismissive of your ideas, it can make you feel like you are dumb. When someone is repeatedly dismissed, they start feeling too insecure to participate in conversations anymore.When faced with someone like that, it's easy to become dismissive of your own ideas. It's important to remember that this is exactly how he wants you to feel, but that doesn't make it correct or appropriate.
4. They isolate themselves
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Sometimes, people who can't stand listening to others isolate themselves from the world. They might feel so secure in themselves that they don't want to be around anyone who could possibly make them feel even worse.
In other circumstances, a man isolates himself because others don't want to be around him. Listening is a big part of mutually beneficial relationships because it helps people feel seen and shows them that their friend or partner cares about their needs. When a man consistently refuses to show that kind of respect, people start to notice and eventually walk away.
5. They are condescending
In recent years, I've noticed more and more people using the phrase "mansplaining" to describe men talking down to women. The fact that there needed to be a catch-all phrase for this behavior shows just how often women experience it.
Men who are condescending to women in particular tend to believe that all men are smarter than all women, even if they don't realize this on a conscious level. They therefore believe they need to talk down to women to help them understand ideas they consider too complex for women to grasp.
6. They lack empathy
It feels nice to be listened to. Knowing how much they cherish that feeling themselves, empathetic people make it a point to listen to their loved ones so they can feel the same way.
A man who isn't empathetic disregards other people's feelings as irrelevant, so it doesn't really matter to him if he makes anyone else feel heard. He may even struggle to grasp the significance of others' experiences and fail to realize he is hurting someone by talking over them.
7. They are defensive
Men who believe they are always right don't like being told they are wrong. This can lead them to lash out at whoever questions them. The person who triggered their reaction might not have even meant anything critical. It could just be them stating their own perspective on the discussion. However, this can make someone who doesn't like being wrong defensive, as they feel they are being attacked.
As a result, they might critique you personally. Even if it has nothing to do with what was being discussed, a defensive person turns the attack they felt you made back on you.
Having differing opinions is usually inevitable in any kind of relationship. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they are questioning you as a person. Unfortunately, defensive men struggle to understand this when they encounter diverse perspectives in social interactions.
8. They are self-centered
This might seem to be the same thing as narcissism, but it's not. People who are self-centered don't necessarily believe they are superior to others. Instead, they fail to focus on others altogether.
Men have been shown to be more self-centered in conversations. Audrey Nelson, Ph.D., has found that "men tend to be self-oriented in how they apply their listening skills." Men tend to think about how other people's words affect them rather than how their own words may affect others.
This self-centeredness in listening can spread to other parts of that man's behavior. Men who are self-centered might not realize they are hurting people around them by speaking over them. They could even feel like everything is going great in your relationship when you feel like it's going terribly.
9. They are inflexible
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Inflexible people can be hard to be friends with because it's hard to break into their structured schedule. Men with rigid routines and beliefs prevent others from getting close to them, instead making people feel offended because they don't engage in their interests.
Relationships are all about give-and-take, and when people feel they always have to give without receiving anything in return, it eventually leaves them feeling drained. If an inflexible man can't change to meet the needs of the people around him, he will likely leave them feeling dissatisfied in the relationship.
10. They are close-minded
A close-minded person struggles to accept new ideas into their life. They typically feel comfortable in their way of being and don't want anything different to change that, so they have no interest in listening to anyone else talk.
People who are close-minded are typically also deeply judgmental. They believe they know what is right and what is not, and they aren't interested in exploring new thoughts or ideas that might challenge their beliefs and perceptions.
11. They are impulsive
Impulsiveness makes someone feel the need to act immediately without pausing to consider the ramifications of their actions. That urgency prevents them from stopping to gather additional information from others.
An impulsive man typically runs into situations without thinking and goes through life headfirst. However, he often ends up landing flat on his face for it. When men are impulsive, they tend not to listen to others because they believe they can race into something and handle it relatively well, without pausing to consider potential consequences.
Unfortunately, without listening to others, people fail to learn from differing perspectives. Impulsive men who don't listen let their egos get in the way of expanding their knowledge and tackling situations more effectively in the future.
Lily Bell is a college student studying English and Publications who covers relationships, mental health, and personal narratives surrounding the human experience.
