What is annoyance anyway?
Unfortunately, with more than half a century of annoyance research we still don’t know much of the dynamics suggested by these questions. The prevailing research question has been “What are the determinants of annoyance?” Within this static stimulus-response frame one stimulus obviously did qualify immediately: sound itself (that is, sound intensity; peak levels, duration of time in-between sound events; etc.). This focus on acoustical factors may explain in part why other so-called non-acoustical factors have received only moderate empirical attention, and far less theoretical attention. However, various comparative studies of surveys of relevant research reveal that non-acoustical factors play a major role (Job, 1988; Fields, 1993; Guski, 1997). E.g., Fields (1993) analysed 464 findings drawn from 136 surveys and concluded that ” () annoyance is not affected to an important extent by ambient noise levels, the amount of time residents are at home, the type of interviewing method or an
