Dr Michael Bryan's Noise Website
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Welcome to my Noise Website
This site is concerned with Annoyance caused by Environmental Noise
Introduction
According to F J Langdon, late of the the UK Road Research Laboratory "Excessive and unwanted sound, in other words noise is an almost ubiquitous form of nuisance affecting most people more widely than perhaps any other disamenity."(1) Nuisance or annoyance from noise(2)is caused in the home from neighbour, and externally from transportation and in schools, hospitals, offices and the workplace in general. It disturbs many of our activities our sleeping, recreation and our ability to concentrate. It can lead to anxiety, depression and even to move house or job. Unfortunately some of us a far more annoyed by noise than others. The role that personality plays in determine our sensitivity to being annoyed e by noise is discussed below.
A brief history of Noise Annoyance
Ever since man became civilized he has been annoyed by the noises of everyday life. Ironically it was thought that the introduction of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine would lead to quieter streets in our towns and cities. People would no longer be bothered by the noises of horses hooves and by iron wheeled vehicles on the cobbles. What is more with ever increasing use of transport it is becoming a noiser world in which we live.(3) This is despite considerable effort to to legislate for more effective control of noise.(4)
Activities Affected
Generally the first activity affected is the ability to sleep, by noise levels in excess of about 30dB(A) although as with all activities affected by noise there is a very wide range in an individual's tolerance or acceptance of noise. Some of us are keep awake or awoken by levels of noise which have no effect on others. The range in level over which a particular noise becomes annoying may be as wide as 40 decibels or more although the higher the noise level the narrower this becomes.
There is very little data available on what are acceptable levels of noise for different activities. Duerden(5) suggests acceptable indoor noise levels, in dBA,for different areas are as follows:
| Situation |
Day
|
Night
|
| Country areas |
40
|
30
|
| Suburban areas* |
50
|
35
|
| Busy urban areas |
60
|
35
|
* Away from main traffic routes
While the following acceptable noise levels in dwellings were quoted in 1963 in reference (2):
|
Situation
|
Noise level dBA
|
|
For night rest
|
25-30
|
|
For day rest
|
30-35
|
|
Reading, mental activities
|
35-40
|
|
Housework, family activities
|
35-45
|
There are many activities both indoor and outdoor for which there is no data in the literature for what are no recommenced acceptable noise levels. There is clearly scope for more research in this area.
Although there are difficulties in obtaining representative noise levels. The above data probably only fits about 70-75% of the population. Also much depends upon the type of noise as well of course the sensitivity to annoyance by noise of the individual which would seem to be a question of personality.
Noise Sources
Annoyance is caused by a very wide range of noises. As is often quoted one person's noise is another's music. So the neighbour music may be extremely annoying especially if one doesn't care for their tastes or if it is played at unsociable hours and at an excessive level. Therefore literally any sort of noise can become a nuisance if it is undesired by the recipient.
However some indication of the most frequent causes of noise annoyance are given in the table below together with the parch ntage of the population bothered ( Based upon the UK BRE data see reference3.)
Percentage of respondents who reported hearing noise
from different sources, and the percent who were bothered
| Source |
Percent hearing noise |
Percent Bothered To some extent |
Percent Annoyed Moderately or very |
Percent Disturbed Very or extremely
|
Total percent Bothered |
| Road Traffic |
84
|
40
|
22
|
8
|
70
|
| Aircraft |
71
|
20
|
7
|
2
|
29
|
| Neighbours |
81
|
37
|
19
|
2
|
58
|
| Trains |
29
|
5
|
2
|
0
|
36
|
| Construction |
60
|
18
|
7
|
1
|
26
|
| Sports Events |
31
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
|
Leisure/ Entertainment |
30
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
| Farming |
26
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
| Factories/ Works |
23
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
| Commercial Premises |
23
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
| Community Buildings |
30
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
| Sea, river, canal traffic |
16
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
| Any other noise |
15
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
8
|
United Kingdom, Noise Category (n=2876 subjects)
Role of Personality in Determining Annoyance
One of earliest references to the fact that personality plays an important role in determining the degree to which an individual is annoyed by noise is found in reference 2 in 1963. At paragraph 43 is is noted that because of adaptation people can be become tolerant to a noise which they formerly found annoying. The report continues "Nevertheless , there are some who are more sensitive than most to noise and who,we fear, can only be advised to to live and work away from it if possible." Sensitivity to annoyance by noise is not related to such demographic variables as education, race, sex and income or to age- see Bragdon, reference 6. However it does appear to be determined by an individual's personality type. It was quoted in 1979 in Harris, Handbook of Noise Control, see reference 7 "that extroverts have a higher annoyance tolerance than introverts." However Langdon concluded in 1985, reference 1, " the relationship between noise (annoyance) sensitivity and specific traits such as neutro- ticism or introversion/extroversion seem difficult to interpret and are not always in agreement."He also writes"It may be that differences in noise tolerance may require a more broadly based and less clinically derived criteria against which to be tested and that traits embodied in the required clinical testing only apply to some of the quite large section of the population highly sensitive to noise."
Clearly a large part appears to be played by personality differences in determining an individual's response to noise. As Moreira and Bryan pointed out (8), "Whilst these criteria (annoyance by noise) are generally successful in predicting community response, with high correlation between noise measures and average annoyance, they all show poor predictive accuracy in determining individual noise susceptibility with correlation's below 0.5." Langdon (ibid.) quotes correlations with community response of around 0.8-0.9 but with individuals this falls to a level as low as 0.2-0.3.
Quite clearly then personality is a major factor at work in determining whether or not any individual is likely to be sensitive to announce by noise.
As indicated on another page the Enneagram method of personality typing is potentially a useful tool for predicting who is likely to be annoyed by noise.
Details are given of a preliminary research study on the link between Enneagram personality typing and sensitivity to annoyance by noise. This study was reported at ..and the paper reproduced in a related page.
Previous Research
Much of the earlier work on noise annoyance has been concerned with the physical characteristics of noise such as pitch, duration whether it is tonal or impulsive in character or not. Also a number of methods of rating noise nuisance have been developed with the aim of predicting community reaction to noise. These have been quite successful and as Langdon remarks, ref 1, can predict the annoyance to noise of a population with a high degree of accuracy( of 0.8 -0.9).
Whilst this fact may please the planners and those responsible for legalisation for the control noise. It in fact does little to protect the individual from undesired environmental noise, where the same noise criteria perform badly, as the correlation with an individual's response is only at a level of 0.2-0.3 and certainly of no predictive value whatsoever.
Quite rightly an increasing amount of research into noise annoyance of late has been concerned with investigating what aspects determine an individual's response to noise and whether or not.
References
1. Langdon, F. J. (1985) " Noise Annoyance" in The Noise Handbook Ed Tempest, W. Academic Press, London. 1 back to personality back to previous research back to intro
2. Cmnd 2056, HMSO 1963. Annoyance due to noise is "the resentment we feel at the intrusion into the physical privacy ... or into our thoughts or emotions."back to intro, back to acceptable levels back to personality back to activities
3. In 1932 R T Beatty could write in his book 'Hearing in man and animals' ( Bell, London) "In English cities the problem (of noise) is not yet so acute as in New York but the level rises year by year."By 1961/62 the London Survey of 1400 people found 36% were disturbed by traffic noise in their homes. See reference 2). ANC 1991 80% of the 2876 respondents in the UK National Noise Attitude Survey, organized by the Building Research Establishment, reported hearing traffic noise while of these 70% were bothered by the noise. back to sources
4. For a review of legislation, up to 1985. in the UK, in the US and in Europe see chapters 12,13 and 14 in The Noise Handbook Ed Tempest W. Academic Press, London. back to history
5.Duerden C. (1970) Noise Abatement Butterworth, London. back to activites
6. Bragdon C.R (1970) Noise Pollution University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. back to personality
7. Harris C.M.(Ed. (1979) Handbook of Noise Control, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. back to personality
8..Moreira, N.M. and Bryan, M.E. (1972). Noise Annoyance Susceptibility, J. Sound Vib, 21, 449-461. back to personality
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