Interesting column. I’d never heard of any research on this momentous question before.
It seems to me that Star Wars in the first sentence should not be italicized as, in context and given the date of the column, it apparently refers to Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) research, and not the George Lucas movie.
The monkey explanation seems dubious. Why would sounds similar but not quite like a Macaque monkey cry be so bothersome, but not actual macaque cries themselves? Besides, I was under the impression that the method that produces the sound has as much to do with the effect on people as the sound itself, ie, hear a squeaky sound and think, “that’s an annoying sound”, but then see that it’s being caused by fingernails on a blackboard and think “omg the horror!”
It’s still an interesting question, I wonder if anyone has else has researched it more thoroughly.
My WAG is that, since running your own fingernails down a blackboard feels creepy, the sound just reminds you of that. I guess that just moves the question up one level though; why does that sensation in particular feel creepy?
Here’s your Government Grant. Go and sin no more. :eek:
But isn’t there an opportunity to dunk this one? With the bit of insight that it isn’t high pitch that induces it - I always assumed it was, and would add walking on cold snow to the list - applying a simple band accept filter over varying frequency ranges should show the culprit.
I, having no knowledge beyond the ability to tune a 12-string guitar, suspect that it is the harmonic content of a relatively low <phantom> pitch that causes this.
With modern DSPs it seems it would be simple to not only use frequency banding, but also remove specific harmonics of the fundamental nails-on-board spectrum until it didn’t bother people.
Maybe the grant application has to assert the contra-positive; to look for the frequency distribution to cause universal pain in order to usurp the Taser. It seems there is more money in funding torture devices these days.
Everybody wants a fucking Government Grant! :rolleyes: Fine. Here’s one for you, too! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::smack:
That doesn’t explain rubbing styrofoam, though.
I’m getting the feeling we shouldn’t have made Cheshire Human the head of the NSF.
Re: Why is the sound of fingernails scraping a blackboard so annoying?
I have my own hypothesis: The aversion is there mostly to make sure we don’t grate our teeth down.
Evidence: When some people hear a griding sound they cover their mouths. Some of them even touch their teeth.
Some of us are taken aback in pretty much the same way when someone bites a fork and… I don’t really want to talk about it. >_<
In Nature we don’t have blackboards or styrofoam, so “avoid that sound” should be a good, easy instinctive rule of thumb to embed in our brains.
Avoiding harmful friction (to protect our teeth, or maybe even our fingernails) sounds more sensible than old monkey alarm shrieks, IMHO.
Wisp, welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boads, we’re glad you found us. Since there was already a thread on this topic, I’ve merged your post into that thread. Hope you don’t mind, it’s just housekeeping, trying to keep all the comments on one column together (or reasonably so.)
First off, the column’s a bit misleading in referring to 3kHz to 6kHz as being low to midrange frequencies. Maybe that is the low to middle range of the sound that fingernails on a blackboard (FOAB) make, but in terms of human hearing, that’s midrange to upper-midrange. Our hearing is most sensitive to that range. Babies’ cries have a lot in that range, dogs’ barks have a lot in that range, screaming/yelling by adults has a lot in that range. It’s just a sensitive area, for fairly obvious reasons. This does not explain why FOAB is particularly distressful, though. I’d tend to agree with the above ideas that it could be clashing harmonics or the sense of grating.
Have you EVER heard the death cry of ANY creature? It’s LOADED with the upper frequencies and each species is notable for it’s death cry.
Google the death cry of a rabbit for a start. The death cry of any ape, especially young and females, who would occupy the upper frequencies, you’ll get it.
The fingernails into the mouth for the sound is JUST short of the fingers in the mouth to prevent a cry to answer the death cry, a survival response that I’ve personally witnessed.
No doubt you are correct, I’ll fix that.