April 21, 2017
I Don't Know...


You asked us to let you know why WE think people call in and say, "I don't know". I can think of four answers to this question:

• People are socially conditioned to have an answer to everything. In grade school, I can recall children raising their hands to answer a question, and when called upon they would say, "I don't know." I used to work in tech support and I found that my coworkers had a tendency to say something that sounded right when they didn't know the actual answer.

• I think there is also a conditioning to be cooperative in conversations and to find agreement. I am, like you, someone who is quite literal. I've noticed many people, however, will have conversations with imprecision where they will agree on common experiences without defining the terms.

• There do seem to be some level of automatic behavior in some of the callers. Perhaps it's the shock of suddenly being on radio. 

• They may in fact have done something similar to what you are recommending, and are attempting to relate to you a commonality rather than to discount your suggestion.

Posted by Staff at 10:57 AM