The Most Annoying Sounds

Annoying sounds. We're bombarded with them every day, and maybe we just haven't noticed how many we hear (I hope my splash isn't one of them). Now, we have new information on what we consider to be the very most irritating sounds.

Researchers from SUNY New Paltz asked volunteers to compute math problems while listening to various sounds, and the findings were published in the Journal of "Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology".

The volunteers were exposed to distracting and irritating sounds such as a baby crying, a buzz saw, nagging, silence, baby talk and whining. And the winner is...whining! That's right, that high-pitched sound made by many children, teenagers and even some dogs beat out the sound of a buzz saw as most annoying sound in the world!

According to the study, the volunteers were more distracted and made more math errors when exposed to whining than any other sound.

So, the next time you're trying to balance your checkbook, make sure the kids and dogs are sleeping!