Malala Yousafzai: What trait do you most dislike in other people?

The question

What trait do you most dislike in other people?

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.

Malala Yousafzai

Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I hate it when my little brothers don't close their mouths when they're eating.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, July 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Layton Williams

Bad personal hygiene.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2024 source ↗

Ina Garten Cookery writer and shop owner

Lying on the sofa watching old episodes of Law & Order all day.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2016 source ↗

Roger McGough

I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Bernadette Peters

People’s need to feel superior to others. All it does is cause judgment and hate.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2025 source ↗

More from Malala Yousafzai

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Question What is one of the best investments you have made — of money, time, or energy? Money & investment

Her story is why I dedicate the Nobel Peace Prize money to the Malala Fund, to help give girls quality education, everywhere, anywhere in the world and to raise their voices. The first place this funding will go to is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan—especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.

Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 source ↗

Question If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be? Identity & self

I'm trying to be more organized.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 12 July 2019 source ↗

Question What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? Failure & regret

I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.

Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2014 source ↗