One thing that spontaneously gets on the nerves of people is embarrassment, which mostly happens when the person is wrong and that fact is shot out heartlessly- or still worse, gets laughed at for it.
There was this English teacher of mine (well, I write this as she remembers me not) who mocked at me for expressing birds in couples. Not only did I suffer 30 seconds of pink cheeks, I also lost hopes of getting a good grade in English for the year. Most of all, I began to hate her.
Anyways, this is just to say that no one likes to know that they are wrong. When you tell people that they are wrong in front of others, you not only insult them but also leave them no way to gracefully fix their mistake.
So, next time you are tempted to correct someone publicly, analyze your motive. Deep down, are you really trying to show your own superiority at someone else's expense? Because, making a show of it will only make YOU look bad. The right way is to show off your smarts without bruising their ego- to fix mistakes privately and to save them from further embarrassment. You decide what you really want- to be right or to be liked?
