Bear with me, 'cause this is just me spit balling here, but I think that some folks are way louder than average because they don't wait for the gaps in other conversations to speak. Why? Well, I assume that their parents don't and they were raised in an environment where they have to learn to talk over things in order to be heard.
Why? Well, I sit around crowds a bit. And I've noticed that the ambient noise levels varies hugely based on rather small differences in group composition. Basically, a couple of people who talk over other conversations force those other conversations to be louder in order to continue. It quickly leads to a positive feedback loop in which everyone is nearly shouting in short order.
I suspect that working very hard on a handful of individuals to get them to speak in the gaps, like many other individuals do, would reduce both the frequency and volume of this problem. The part I'm stuck on is how to make that possible. After all, telling someone that they are loud and making everyone around them loud isn't exactly tactful, and cooperation is necessary for any progress to be made at all. Since, no forcing someone else to change behavior is almost invariably a bad thing that can only really be managed by using the most distasteful methods.
Any ideas on how to make this minor annoyance less annoying would be most welcome.
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