Why are we annoyed by certain sounds?

And why are we not? I too am annoyed by the rather too pronounced sound of mastication, tongue slapping, pressing food against itself and the mouth’s roof to slide sideways towards teeth awaiting it’s turn to grind and break, the wet sticky motions repeating until substance swallowed. When I was but a child, elder folks would whisper strongly in my ear, “Eat but don’t do as pigs do eat.” Would that be the answer then, a forgotten but mind embedded chastisement from the past?

I’ll just add that pigs do not eat like others think. Indeed they eat LOUD but they got some manners too :P

Interesting question. Some sounds seem to be nearly universally annoying (the chalkboard thing), while others vary by person (eating doesn’t bother me, but throw-up sounds are awful). I wonder if maybe people with exceptionally good hearing are annoyed by more sounds than others. Sorry I don’t have an actual answer, but thanks for making me think!

Gumming pork to death seems like a good name for a band.

I too hate eating sounds!

I think the thing that bothers me most is when people are drinking (any liquid – I don’t mean boozin’) and swallow “too hard”. Does anyone know what I mean? When I’m drinking, no matter how thirsty I am, I never swallow hard like that. But some people I know make an audible gulp every time they swallow liquid!

When I was little, I guess I had a hard time remembering my table manners, because I have distinct memories of being very young and having my mom always saying “Don’t talk with your mouth full!” and “Don’t eat with your mouth open!”
This inevitably sometimes turned into “Don’t eat with your mouth full” or “Don’t talk with your mouth open”, which is pretty hilarious when you’re five.

It might be genetic memory. Some similar sound in the distant past could have meant danger.

Well, that is the beauty of wearing hearing aids. All noises that “upset my applecart”, I just hit the off button on my aids and that silence is golden.

I do understand where you are coming from. I once observed a woman eating ice cubes with no teeth!

Do not misunderstand me, a persons hearing is precious. Guard your ears forever.

You do not miss those sounds, until you cannot hear them anymore.

@mattbrowne: That is interesting. I could really buy that as something in relation to the chewing sound. I mean it would really be digging back in genetic memory, but it makes sense. For the first time, that really makes sense to me.

@cak – Yes. For example, babies don’t have to learn to be afraid of great heights. Studies clearly show this. Kids are afraid of very large spiders and snakes the very first time they see one for real. But kids have to learn that guns can be very dangerous. Point a gun at a man in the Amazon with no previous contact to civilization. No fear. The danger database of our amygdala is like a pre-installed harddrive with plenty of space to store newly experienced dangers.

@mattbrowne Very interesting. Thank you for going further.

Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome (or “4S”), AKA misophonia, is an intense aversion to specific soft sounds, commonly mouth-related noises (92%) but possibly including a long list of other “trigger” noises.

The audiologist who first proposed that this was a specific disorder was Marsha Johnson. Here’s how she describes it:

“4S appears most of the time in children between the ages of 8 and 13. It generally has a sudden onset point and the subjects are able to describe the event with great detail and precision. Most often the first negative encounter with these softer sounds is with a primary family member – usually mom or dad, but sometimes it is a sibling that presents the problem first. These “trigger” people are important in the syndrome, as the child rapidly forms strong negative associations with the activities and events that create the potential for the “trigger” to emerge, e.g., preparing for dinner at home. Over time, these triggers tend to expand and include other people or other situations.

There appears to be a genetic influence in 4S due to the high number of subjects who report a relative with similar issues related to sound and negative associations. A typical reaction of the family to the subject is to insist that the reaction stop because ‘no one else is bothered by dad’s chewing sounds, so just knock it off.’ ”

It’s so severe in some people that they wear in-ear white noise generators to mask the sounds.