Poll: What sounds do you hate?
Miscellaneous / / April 02, 2023
According to the new research According to British scientists, every fifth inhabitant of the UK has symptoms of misophonia - that is, a sharp negative reaction to certain sounds.
The survey was conducted on a sample of 768 people (mean age 46.4 years, almost equal proportions of men and women). It turned out that 13.6% of respondents knew about misophonia as a phenomenon, and 2.3% believed that they were suffering from this disorder.
Next, the researchers assessed volunteers' responses to 37 of the most common misophonia triggers. Participants chose between options:
- feel nothing;
- irritation;
- anxiety;
- disgust;
- anger;
- panic;
- different feeling.
The intensity of each marked reaction was asked to be rated on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is no reaction and 10 is the sound is unbearable or distressing.
An analysis of the results showed that 18% of the respondents had a negative reaction to at least some sound. The most popular reaction (besides the option “I don’t feel anything”) was irritation. He was most often felt at the sounds of loud breathing, knocking, as well as repeated sniffing, barking or coughing.
Anxiety was most often caused by crying children, disgust - champing, anger - snoring and repeated barking, panic - steps, crying children and repeated coughing.
The authors argue that the results of the study can be extrapolated to the entire population of the UK.
Lifehacker decided to find out how things are going with misophonia among his readers. Tell us in the comments: what sounds annoy you the most?
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