Is whistling contagious, and if so, why?

I get irrationally pissed off/annoyed when I hear people whistling. I’m still not really sure why but it annoys the hell out of me.

That too!!!

It kinda feels like if someone was having intolerable fun at your expense…though they are not. I hear ya… I can handle it though, if someone has started whistling when I am not. But I would NEVER keep whistling if someone else started whistling while I was whistling!

Exactly what @uberbatman said. I want to punch them in the face.

I’ve never found whistling to be particularly contagious, and I don’t much mind it (depending, of course, where I am) as long as it’s more or less a tune and not some mindless no-melody thing.

In the 60s when I worked at a newspaper, employees were not allowed to whistle in the city room, that part of the building where the day’s news was collected and written up and edited. This wasn’t to keep ears from being offended—the city room was akways noisy, what with reporters yelling and typewriters and teletype machines constantly clattering; it was because whistling was deemed among oldtimer to be bad, bad luck.

I thought I was the only one that hated when people whistle. It’s annoying, not contagious.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room It’s bad luck in a theater, too.

I don’t think whistling is so much contagious as it reminds you of a tune and you may start whistling too, without thinking.
Birds don’t usually whistle while another is “on.” They may answer a whistle, but there’s a pause between whistlers. It depends on if the whistle is a call or a song. Some birds go on singing and singing and I love to listen.
and I’m kind of making this up. the comments are from my experience; not from knowledge

So there you have it. Not contagious.

But the overwhelming desire to bonk something off the whistler’s head….THAT might be contagious…

Yup, cheerfulness is always contagious.

Not contagious no, very cheesy & dated.
Not that it bothers me much, some aggressive types here seem to have anger issues though, very odd.

Only in musical comedies.

Most people whistle so badly that it simply grates on the ear: thin, tuneless, simplistic, and off key. If competition forces one or both whistlers to stop, then great. I once shared an office with a whistler who had no sense of musicality. It was torture. (Yes, I asked him to knock it off. He didn’t seem to know he was doing it and started up again minutes later.)

However, I stayed at a resort once where a grounds worker whistled constantly. He whistled themes from classical music—complete melodies from concertos and symphonies, arias from opera—fully and sweetly, on pitch and with expression. It was beautiful. I was tempted to follow him around just to listen. Whenever he came near, I stopped what I was doing. Whistle like that and I’ll be your biggest fan.

In general, forcing anybody to listen to your intrusive noise is rude, whether it be your loud conversation, your screaming baby, your idling motorcycle, or your music-delivery device. Whistling doesn’t get a pass.

Confirmation bias? Have you ever counted how many people don’t start whistling once they’ve heard you whistle?

And no… we are not part bird. ;)

There was a daughter of a resident in the home who whistled one song in particular as she was wheeling her mother around the home.

It was beautiful. It was always the same song and she did it well. I can’t remember the name of it now, it was a resident that passed a while back. It might have been a hymnal or a classic or something folksy.

Something that evoked largely good memories. Though I remember there was something a little maudlin about it.

Any way when she whistled I remembered I had read about the whistling and humming stimulating the thyroid and possibly boosting serotonin levels boosting mood. I would attempt it shorty thereafter. But it is something I would have to practice to be good at. I prefer humming I am much better at it.

Largely whistling is obnoxious mostly because people do it so rarely that is not fun to do or listen to other people. But the whistle is an instrument like the voice. Any instrument takes practice to refine even if you have an affinity to it. It can be refined like any other skill, unless you are tone deaf.

If the OP has people imitating him then he must be good and is lifting and inspiring others. Which is what people do of traits they like.

haha This reminds me of an episode from Scrubs XD

http://youtu.be/Qx1N2Zz5y8E

But yeah, it’s true. When other people whistle I start whistling too. Especially if it’s catchy.