selective listening
Tuning out inconvenience
Selective listening is hearing only what you want to hear, filtering out inconvenient information or unwelcome parts of a conversation.
The term usually carries a note of accusation—that someone is deliberately tuning out criticism, instructions, or disagreement: He has a bad case of selective listening when it comes to doing chores.
Parents and partners invoke it often.
- tuning outDeliberately not hearing
- ignoringDeliberately not noticing
- cherry-pickingChoosing only supporting examples
- picking and choosingSelective acceptance of options
- biasUnfair inclination or prejudice
in one ear out the other · distracted · nodding along · zoning out · filtered · white noise · dismissive · talk to the hand · inattentive · prejudice · conversation · argument · spouse · lecture · bored · convenient · defensive · glazed eyes
- listeningattentive, focused attention, full attention, paying attention, heeding
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