I've worn earbuds with the cord not plugged into anything shoved in my pocket to avoid being pestered by panhandlers while walking around some cities, so I imagine the same technique would work in an airport to avoid pestering Behavior Detection voodoo practitioners.

But there is nothing that compels anyone to speak to a TSA employee. I limit exchanges to things such as identifying my bag if asked when it comes out of the x-ray when they want to do a secondary. Topics beyond that, such as where I'm flying to, are met with silence, and I do want them to know I can hear them just fine.