Evaluating noise in social context: the effect of procedural unfairness on noise annoyance judgments

General dosage-response curves typically over- or underestimate the actual prevalence of noise annoyance for specific groups of individuals. The present study applies a social psychological approach to noise annoyance that helps to understand and predict collective deflections from the curve. The approach holds that being exposed to man-made sound is more than mere exposure; it is a social experience, too: You expose Me. In effect, social aspects of the situation, like the evaluation of the sound management procedure, influence the evaluation of sound. The laboratory experiment (N=90) investigates the effect of procedural unfairness on noise annoyance. The sound management procedure is varied systematically: Participants are promised they will listen to the sound of their choice (i.e., bird song, radio sound, or aircraft sound) but receive aircraft sound despite their expressed preference (unfair procedure), or they are simply told they will listen to aircraft sound (neutral procedure). All are exposed to aircraft sound (50 or 70 dBA Leq). A collective rise in noise annoyance is predicted in the unfair relative to the neutral procedure conditions. Results show that noise annoyance ratings are significantly higher in the unfair relative to the neutral conditions. Consequences for theory and practice are discussed.