Crichton Fiona, Dodd George, Schmid Gian, Petrie Keith J
Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Acoustic Research Centre, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Environ Res. 2015 Oct;142:609-14. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2015.08.016.
Annoyance reactions to environmental noise, such as wind turbine sound, have public health implications given associations between annoyance and symptoms related to psychological distress. In the case of wind farms, factors contributing to noise annoyance have been theorised to include wind turbine sound characteristics, the noise sensitivity of residents, and contextual aspects, such as receiving information creating negative expectations about sound exposure.
The experimental aim was to assess whether receiving positive or negative expectations about wind farm sound would differentially influence annoyance reactions during exposure to wind farm sound, and also influence associations between perceived noise sensitivity and noise annoyance.
Sixty volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either negative or positive expectations about wind farm sound. Participants in the negative expectation group viewed a presentation which incorporated internet material indicating that exposure to wind turbine sound, particularly infrasound, might present a health risk. Positive expectation participants viewed a DVD which framed wind farm sound positively and included internet information about the health benefits of infrasound exposure. Participants were then simultaneously exposed to sub-audible infrasound and audible wind farm sound during two 7 min exposure sessions, during which they assessed their experience of annoyance.
Positive expectation participants were significantly less annoyed than negative expectation participants, while noise sensitivity only predicted annoyance in the negative group.
Findings suggest accessing negative information about sound is likely to trigger annoyance, particularly in noise sensitive people and, importantly, portraying sound positively may reduce annoyance reactions, even in noise sensitive individuals.
对环境噪声（如风力涡轮机声音）的烦恼反应具有公共卫生意义，因为烦恼与心理困扰相关症状之间存在关联。就风力发电场而言，理论上导致噪声烦恼的因素包括风力涡轮机声音特性、居民的噪声敏感性以及情境因素，例如收到关于声音暴露产生负面预期的信息。
实验目的是评估对风力发电场声音有正面或负面预期是否会在暴露于风力发电场声音期间对烦恼反应产生不同影响，以及是否会影响感知到的噪声敏感性与噪声烦恼之间的关联。
60名志愿者被随机分配，以接收关于风力发电场声音的负面或正面预期。负面预期组的参与者观看了一个演示文稿，其中包含网络材料，表明暴露于风力涡轮机声音，特别是次声，可能存在健康风险。正面预期组的参与者观看了一张DVD，该DVD对风力发电场声音进行了正面描述，并包含了关于次声暴露对健康有益的网络信息。然后，参与者在两个7分钟的暴露时段内同时暴露于亚听觉次声和可听的风力发电场声音中，在此期间他们评估自己的烦恼体验。
正面预期组的参与者比负面预期组的参与者烦恼程度明显更低，而噪声敏感性仅在负面组中预测烦恼程度。
研究结果表明，获取关于声音的负面信息可能会引发烦恼，特别是在对噪声敏感的人群中，而且重要的是，正面描述声音可能会减少烦恼反应，即使在对噪声敏感的个体中也是如此。
