Lack of empathy and compassion.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
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.
Cruelty, and also general rudeness and unkindness. I’ve always told my children: Don’t ever find entertainment in someone else’s discomfort.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →Carelessness of truth and others.
Mean-spiritedness and the inability to set and respect boundaries.
People who can’t read my mind.
More from Jean Smart
View profile →Jane Goodall. I got the chance to meet her a few years ago, and it was the thrill of a lifetime. When I was little, I wanted to be her. I thought she had the coolest life in the world.
My kids are in the house. I’ve been gardening in my vegetable garden. I have absolutely zero obligations or calls to return. Now I’m fixing dinner with music playing and having a glass of wine.
When I’m feeling lazy and I sleep in too much.
Kindness and laughter. If someone makes me laugh, I’m halfway in love.
My wedding day, and when my children were first placed in my arms.
Losing a loved one.
More on values & belief
- Which living person do you most admire, and why? 406 answers
- What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? 79 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 14 answers
- What is the most overrated virtue? 10 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 9 answers
Also answered this
Michael Flatley, Mike Skinner, John Malkovich, Bear Grylls, Ed Harris, Fiona Allen
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