Annoying sounds made randomly9/24/2023 ![]() They tend to avoid these sorts of encounters as much as possible by either eating alone, or even isolating themselves completely. And as you can imagine, these people have a tremendously hard time fitting into society. But if the reactions are more severe, like with some people, then they can experience rage, anger, deep hatred, panic, a strong desire to kill that person, or even suicidal thoughts. The mild reactions people have when they’re exposed to these sounds are: anxiety, disgust, feeling uncomfortable, or the urge to get away. And surprisingly enough, misophonia can also extend to things like leg fidgeting, which has nothing to do with sound. ![]() As it turns out, the repetitive nature of the sound is partially to blame here. But misophonia doesn’t only account for ear ringing, but for the discomfort some people feel for all sorts of human-made sounds like chewing, breathing heavily, finger tapping, yawning, cracking knuckles, snoring, or even whistling. The term itself was coined back in the early 2000s when a group of researchers was studying ear ringing. If that’s the case, then you’re part of the fortunate few who’re not suffering from a mild form of misophonia, or “hatred of sound”. And you probably heard it, too, but didn’t notice. Noisy ChewingĮver been around people who were chewing their food so loudly and messily that you felt the urge to punch them? If you haven’t, then call yourself lucky. Other scraping noises like power or dental drills, a knife against a glass, a fork against a plate or teeth, or rubbing Styrofoam also fall in this category. So, as it turns out, it’s not necessarily the sound itself we hate, but rather what our mind’s eye sees when it hears it: fingernails dragging on the chalkboard. And even though their physical responses were the same – elevated heart rate, sweating palms, and the like – the people who were told the true origins of the sounds rated them more annoying than those who believed them to be part of a contemporary musical piece. But while half of the volunteers were told the exact source of each sound, the other half was told that unpleasant noises were part of some sort of art piece. They were then asked to rate the scale of unpleasantness for each of them. Two dozen participants were hooked up to a series of monitors that analyzed their heart rate, electrodermal activity, and sweating rate, and were then exposed to a series of irritating sounds. According to the previously mentioned study, it turns out that context plays an important role here. Nevertheless, this still doesn’t account for why it’s actually so annoying. However, this connection is still widely debated. In fact, primate warning calls fall within this frequency range, and this may be the reason we hear these sounds louder than others. This frequency is actually enhanced by the human ear because of its shape, and some believe it has something to do with our evolution. First off, it turns out that the sound produced by nails on chalkboard falls within the band of mid-range frequencies, somewhere in between 2,000 to 5,000 Hz. But why? Why do we find this particular sound so hard to bear? This is a question that apparently has boggled some scientist’s minds as well, since in 2011 they made a study on it. ![]() Among the many sounds people find the most annoying, scratching one’s fingernails on a piece of chalkboard is among the worst. Let’s start off this list with a particularly nasty one: fingernails dragging on a chalkboard. The way these vibrations are turned into actual sound inside our heads is amazing, to say the least, and so is the reason for why we find some of them pleasurable… while others truly annoying. This sense lets us listen to music, have verbal conversations, or even hear an incoming threat, like a lion running through the underbrush towards us. ![]() Nevertheless, the sense of sound is one of the major ones, and it helps us pick up on vibrations (oscillating pressure waves) traveling through a medium –usually the air – and then converting them into something different: sound. And even though we humans have the five major senses, there could be as many as 21. Like many of the other living beings on Earth, we rely on our senses to function in the world.
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