Human response to environmental noise: the role of perceived control

Negative impacts of noise exposure on health and performance may result in part from "learned helplessness," the syndrome of deficits typically produced by exposure to uncontrollable events. People may perceive environmental noise to be uncontrollable, and several effects of noise exposure appear to parallel "learned helplessness" deficits. In the present socioacoustic survey (N = 1,015), perceived control over aircraft noise correlated negatively with some effects of noise (though not others). Furthermore, these effects were better predicted by perceived control than by noise level. These observational data support the claim that "learned helplessness" contributes to the effects of noise exposure.