Abstract
Excessive dog barking is among the leading sources of noise pollution worldwide; however, the reasons for the annoyance of barking to people remained uninvestigated. Our questions were: is the annoyance rating affected by the acoustic parameters of barks; does the attributed inner state of the dog and the nuisance caused by its barks correlate; does the gender and country of origin affect the subjects' sensitivity to barking. Participants from Hungary (N = 100) and Brazil (N = 60) were tested with sets of 27 artificial bark sequences. Subjects rated each bark according to the inner state of the dog and the annoyance caused by the particular bark. Subjects from both countries found high-pitched barks the most annoying: however, harsh, fast-pulsing, low-pitched barks were also unpleasant. Men found high-pitched barks more annoying than the women did. Annoyance ratings showed positive correlation with assumed negative inner states of the dog, positive emotional ratings showed negative correlation with the annoyance level. This is the first indication that acoustic features that were selected for effective vocal signalling may be annoying for human listeners. Among the explanations for this effect the role of affective communication and similar bioacoustics of particular animal vocalizations and baby cries are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 26-47 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Interaction Studies |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
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Keywords
- Annoyance
- Bioacoustics
- Communication
- Dog
- Nuisance Bark
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Communication
- Animal Science and Zoology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Linguistics and Language
Cite this
The communicative relevance of auditory nuisance : Barks that are connected to negative inner states in dogs can predict annoyance level in humans. / Pongrácz, P.; Czinege, Nikolett; Haynes, Thaissa Menezes Pavan; Tokumaru, Rosana Suemi; Miklósi, A.; Farago, Tamas.
In: Interaction Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2016, p. 26-47.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The communicative relevance of auditory nuisance
T2 - Barks that are connected to negative inner states in dogs can predict annoyance level in humans
AU - Pongrácz, P.
AU - Czinege, Nikolett
AU - Haynes, Thaissa Menezes Pavan
AU - Tokumaru, Rosana Suemi
AU - Miklósi, A.
AU - Farago, Tamas
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Excessive dog barking is among the leading sources of noise pollution worldwide; however, the reasons for the annoyance of barking to people remained uninvestigated. Our questions were: is the annoyance rating affected by the acoustic parameters of barks; does the attributed inner state of the dog and the nuisance caused by its barks correlate; does the gender and country of origin affect the subjects' sensitivity to barking. Participants from Hungary (N = 100) and Brazil (N = 60) were tested with sets of 27 artificial bark sequences. Subjects rated each bark according to the inner state of the dog and the annoyance caused by the particular bark. Subjects from both countries found high-pitched barks the most annoying: however, harsh, fast-pulsing, low-pitched barks were also unpleasant. Men found high-pitched barks more annoying than the women did. Annoyance ratings showed positive correlation with assumed negative inner states of the dog, positive emotional ratings showed negative correlation with the annoyance level. This is the first indication that acoustic features that were selected for effective vocal signalling may be annoying for human listeners. Among the explanations for this effect the role of affective communication and similar bioacoustics of particular animal vocalizations and baby cries are discussed.
AB - Excessive dog barking is among the leading sources of noise pollution worldwide; however, the reasons for the annoyance of barking to people remained uninvestigated. Our questions were: is the annoyance rating affected by the acoustic parameters of barks; does the attributed inner state of the dog and the nuisance caused by its barks correlate; does the gender and country of origin affect the subjects' sensitivity to barking. Participants from Hungary (N = 100) and Brazil (N = 60) were tested with sets of 27 artificial bark sequences. Subjects rated each bark according to the inner state of the dog and the annoyance caused by the particular bark. Subjects from both countries found high-pitched barks the most annoying: however, harsh, fast-pulsing, low-pitched barks were also unpleasant. Men found high-pitched barks more annoying than the women did. Annoyance ratings showed positive correlation with assumed negative inner states of the dog, positive emotional ratings showed negative correlation with the annoyance level. This is the first indication that acoustic features that were selected for effective vocal signalling may be annoying for human listeners. Among the explanations for this effect the role of affective communication and similar bioacoustics of particular animal vocalizations and baby cries are discussed.
KW - Annoyance
KW - Bioacoustics
KW - Communication
KW - Dog
KW - Nuisance Bark
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84989900847&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84989900847&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1075/is.17.1.02pon
DO - 10.1075/is.17.1.02pon
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84989900847
VL - 17
SP - 26
EP - 47
JO - Interaction Studies
JF - Interaction Studies
SN - 1572-0373
IS - 1
ER -