Audio Annoyances

Last week, The New York Times published an essay from Barron H. Lerner, a primary care physician who described his struggle with misophonia, an irritating condition in which “certain sounds can drive someone into a burst of rage or disgust.”

 

Perhaps you or someone you know is also driven up the wall by the sound of say, knuckles cracking or incessant sniffling. 

 

If this sounds familiar, you may be pleased to know that, when Dr. Lerner asked readers to submit their own biggest audio annoyances, food-related noises ranked among the top five most annoying sounds.

 

Knuckle cracking rankled 8 percent of readers, nail clipping disgusted 10 percent, and nose sniffling distressed a solid 17 percent of readers.

 

Finally, however, the top two spots were reserved for food-based audio.

 

Gum snapping drove 18 percent of people crazy, while the final, most rage-inducing noise was soup slurping, which plagued one in four readers, or 25 percent.

 

The Times has also provided short audio clips of these sounds, if, for some reason, you need to test yourself.