Why do some noises, like “nails on a chalkboard”, make us cringe?
In: Biology
When we hear nails on a chalkboard, or similar sounds, it makes you cringe because of a few reasons related to how our ears and brains work.
These kinds of noises often hit a particular frequency that’s very sensitive to human ears. It’s not just loud; it’s perceived as an uncomfortably high-pitched screech. This frequency range can make the tiny, involuntary muscles in our middle ears contract automatically. This reflex is meant to protect our ears from loud sounds, but it can also make the screeching noise feel even more intense.
Additionally, there might be an evolutionary reason behind this strong reaction. Some scientists think that these high-pitched sounds are similar to the warning calls or distress screams of primates or other animals. Our ancestors would have needed to react quickly to such sounds if they signaled danger. So, the intense reaction you feel could be an old survival mechanism, alerting you to what your brain interprets as a potential threat, even though it’s just a sound with no real danger attached to it.
Does the frequency or general abrasiveness mimic the sound of a crying baby or something? Our ability to recognize and be annoyed by that sound has evolutionary benefits.
I’ve heard something like that before. Not certain.
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This is not really known scientifically, but there are some guesses.
I think the most likely reason is that those sounds are very similar to the sound of tooth being abraded on hard material. It would be very, very bad for you to wear your teeth down (you couldn’t eat, then, and might starve), so your body has a very strong reaction against things sound/feel like that. It is probably a little overactive because it’s better to be overactive rather than underactive in this case.
Specifically, the mechanism would be that ancestors/animals that had this reaction had better teeth on average, and were more likely to survive to have healthy offspring, so over time there were more of them. You’re their descendants.
A whistle in slow motion sounds like a blood curdling scream. Learned this playing NHL and Watching replays
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