Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Research in psychoacoustics and public health reveals that individuals respond differently to noise, with some being more sensitive to noise than others. Given the prevalence of mobile technology and that noise sensitivity appears to be a relatively stable individual difference, it is possible that noise sensitivity may distinguish individual mobile phone use. This study investigates the relationship between noise sensitivity and mobile phone attitudes and behaviors. Study results suggest that noise sensitive bystanders find mobile phone conversations more annoying, that they differ in their assessment of the distraction level of ambient noise when making and receiving calls, are more likely to report mobile phones as distracting, and are more likely to seek privacy from others when receiving a call.

Keywords

Listening mobile phone noise mobile phone privacy noise sensitivity sensory processing sensitivity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aron

E. N.

(1996). The highly sensitive person. New York, NY: Broadway.

Aron

E. N.

Aron

(1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 345–368. doi:10.1037/ 0022–3514.73.2.345

Baird

J. C.

Harder

Preis

(1997). Annoyance and community noise: A psychophysical model of dose-response relationships. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17, 333–343. doi:10.1006/jevp.1997.0066

Banjo

Sundar

(2008). Cell phone usage and social interaction with proximate others: Ringing in a theoretical model. The Open Communication Journal, 2, 127–135. doi:10.2174/1874916X00802010127

Benfield

J. A.

Nurse

G. A.

Jakubowski

Gibson

A. W.

Taff

B. D.

Newman

Bell

P. A.

(2012). Testing noise in the field: A brief measure of individual noise sensitivity. Environment and Behavior, 46, 353–372. doi:10.1177/0013916512454430

Byrne

B. M.

(2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS (2nd ed.). Ottawa, Canada: Routledge.

Campbell

S. W.

(2007). Perceptions of mobile phone use in public settings: A cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Communication, 1, 738–757. doi:1932–8036/20070738

Cegala

D. J.

(1981). Interaction involvement: A cognitive dimension of communicative competence. Communication Education, 30, 109–121. doi:10.1080/03634528109378460

Cell phone noise pollution. (2005). Research on research (r²). Retrieved from http://digitalunion.osu.edu/r2/node/15

10.

Cocker

D. A.

Burgoon

(1987). The nature of conversational involvement and nonverbal encoding patterns. Human Communication Research, 13, 463–494. doi:10.1111/j.1468–2958.1987.tb00115.x

11.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

12.

Ellermeier

Eigenstetter

Zimmer

(2001). Psychoacoustic correlates of individual noise sensitivity. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 1464–1473. doi:10.1121/1.1350402

13.

Faul

Erdfelder

Lang

A.-G.

Buchner

(2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.

14.

Gearhart

C. C.

(2012). Communicating while stimulated: The effects of sensory-processing sensitivity on behavior and relationships (Doctoral dissertation). Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. Retrieved from http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04262012–150423/unrestricted/ChristopherGearhartFinalCopy.pdf

15.

Gearhart

C. C.

(2014). Sensory-processing sensitivity and nonverbal decoding: The effect on listening ability and accuracy. International Journal of Listening, 28, 98–111. doi:10.1080/10904018.2014.880867

16.

Glass

D. C.

Singer

J. E.

(1972). Urban stress experiments on noise and social stressors. New York, NY: Academic.

17.

A guide to New York City’s noise code. (2014). New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Environmental Compliance. Retrieved from www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/noise_code_guide.pdf

18.

Guski

(1997). Psychological methods for evaluating sound quality and assessing acoustic information. Acta Acustica, 83, 765–774.

19.

Heinonen-Guzejev

Vuorinen

H. S.

Mussalo-Rauhamaa

Heikkila

Koskenvuo

Kaprio

(2007). The association of noise sensitivity with coronary heart and cardiovascular mortality among Finnish adults. Science of the Total Environment, 372(2–3), 406–412. doi:10.1289/ehp.1205606

20.

Hill

E. M.

(2012). Noise sensitivity and diminished health: The role of stress-related factors (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Auckland University of Technology, Aukland, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10292/4755

21.

Hoyle

R. H.

(2000). Confirmatory factor analysis. In Tinsley

H. E.

Brown

S. D.

(Eds.), Handbook of applied multivariate statistics and mathematical modeling (pp. 465–497). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

22.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118

23.

Kishikawa

Matsui

Uchiyama

Miyakawa

Hiramatsu

Stansfeld

(2006). The development of Weinstein’s noise sensitivity scale. Noise and Health, 8, 154–160. doi:10.4103/1463–1741.50696

24.

Kjellberg

Landstroè

M. U.

Tesarz

M. S.

Èoderberg

Èakerlund

(1996). The effects of nonphysical noise characteristics, ongoing task and noise sensitivity on annoyance and distraction due to noise at work. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 123–126. doi:10.1006/jevp.1996.0010

25.

Kline

R. B.

(2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford.

26.

Kuwano

Namba

Nakajima

(1980). On the noisiness of steady state and intermittent noises. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 72, 87–96. doi:10.1016/0022–460X(80)90709–9

27.

Luz

G. A.

(2005). Noise sensitivity rating of individuals. Sound and Vibration Magazine, 39, 14–17. Retrieved from www.sandv.com/downloads/0508luz.pdf

28.

Marks

Griefahn

(2007). Associations between noise sensitivity and sleep, subjectively evaluated sleep quality, annoyance, and performance after exposure to nocturnal traffic noise. Noise & Health, 9, 1–7. doi:10.4103/1463–1741.34698

29.

Miedema

H. M. E.

(2007). Annoyance caused by environmental noise: Elements for evidence-based noise policies. Journal of Social Issues, 63, 41–57. doi:10.1111/j.1540–4560.2007.00495.x

30.

Miedema

H. M. E.

Vos

(2003). Noise sensitivity and reactions to noise and other environmental conditions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 113, 1492–1504. doi:10.1121/1.1547437

31.

Miedema

H. M. E.

Vos

(1999). Demographic and attitudinal factors that modify annoyance from transportation noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 105, 3336–3344. doi:10.1121/1.424662

32.

Mulgrew

(2013). Exploring noise sensitivity: Cardiac correlates of noise sensitivity and the auditory evoked orienting response (Unpublished master’s thesis). Auckland University of Technology, Aukland, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10292/7177/MulgrewJ.pdf?sequence=3

33.

Nordin

Ljungberg

J. K.

Claeson

A. S.

Neely

(2013). Stress and odor sensitivity in persons with noise sensitivity. Noise Health, 15, 173–177. doi:10.4103/1463–1741.112366

34.

Öhrsröm

Björkman

Rylander

(1988). Noise annoyance with regard to neurophysiological sensitivity, subjective noise sensitivity and personality variables. Psychological Medicine, 18, 605–613. doi:10.1017/S003329170000828X

35.

Ouis

(2002). Annoyance caused by exposure to road traffic noise: An update. Noise & Health, 4, 69–70.

36.

Playing your part to reduce noise. (2010). The City of LaPorte Police Department. Retrieved from http://lpcitypd.com/Brochures/NOISE%20ORDINANCE%20BROCHURE.pdf

37.

Przybylski

A. K.

Weinstein

(2012). Can you connect with me now? How the presence of mobile communication technology influences face-to-face conversation quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 94, 1–10. doi:10.1177/0265407512453827

38.

Rainie

Keeter

(2006, April 3). Americans and their cellphones. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/Americans-and-their-cell-phones.aspx

39.

Raw

G. J.

Griffiths

I. D.

(1988). Individual differences to road traffic noise. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 121, 463–471. doi:10.1016/S0022–460X(88)80369–9

40.

Raykov

Marcoulides

G. A.

(2006). A first course in structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

41.

Saarinen

(2013). Valtioneuvoston periaatepäätöksen ja valtakunnallisen toimintaohjeen toteutumista meluntorjunnassa selvittäneen työryhmän raportti (The report of the committee focusing on the implementation of the government’s resolution and the national Code of Conduct regarding the prevention of noise). Helsinki, Finland: Valtioneuvosto.

42.

Sandrock

Schutte

Griefahn

(2009). Impairing effects of noise in high and low noise sensitive persons working on different mental tasks. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 82, 779–785. doi:10.1007/s00420–008–0379–0

43.

Schreiber

C. A.

Kahneman

(2000). Determinants of the remembered utility of aversive sounds. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 27–42. doi:10.1037/0096–3445.129.1.27

44.

Sidelinger

R. J.

Ayash

Godorhazy

Tibbles

(2008). Couples go online: Relational maintenance behaviors and relational characteristics use in dating relationships. Human Communication, 11, 341–355. Retrieved from http://www.uab.edu/Communicationstudies/humancommunication/11.3.06.pdf

45.

Smith

(2003). The concept of noise sensitivity: Implications for noise control. Noise & Health, 5, 57–59. doi:10.1177/0013916586182004

46.

Smith

Stansfeld

S. A.

(1986). Aircraft noise exposure, noise sensitivity and everyday errors. Environment and Behavior, 18, 214–226. doi:10.1177/0013916586182004

47.

Stansfeld

(1992). Noise, noise sensitivity and psychiatric disorder: Epidemiological and psychophysiological studies [Monograph]. Psychological Medicine, (Suppl. 22), 1–44.

48.

Vanderhei

S. L.

Loeb

(1977). Annoyance and behavioral after effects following interfering and noninterfering aircraft noise. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 719–726. doi:10.1037/0021–9010.62.6.719

49.

Västfjäll

(2002). Influences of current mood and noise sensitivity on judgments of noise annoyance. The Journal of Psychology, 13, 357–370. doi:10.1080/00223980209604163

50.

Weinstein

N. D.

(1978). Individual differences in reactions to noise: A longitudinal study in a college dormitory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 458–466. doi:10.1037/0021–9010.63.4.458

51.

Worthington

D. L.

Fitch-Hauser

Välikoski

T.-R.

Imhof

Kim

S.-H.

(2012). Listening and privacy management in cell phone conversations among young adults: A cross-cultural comparison of Finnish, German, Korean, and U.S. American students. Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 3, 43–60. doi:10.1386/ejpc.3.1.43_1

52.

Zimmer

Ellermeier

(1999). Psychometric properties of four measures of noise sensitivity: A comparison. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, 295–302. doi:10.1006/jevp.1999.0133

The influence of individual noise sensitivity on mobile phone attitudes and behavior

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References