Research on Gender-related Topics
By Steve Wang
Introduction
Sound is in everything we use today. It is an important part of our lives. Some sounds can invoke different feelings within us. Sometimes it is important when we need someone to do something, we play a specific sound. For example, when we are driving and someone is blocking the path, we honk at them. When we need someone to pick up a phone call we might play a sound. We might also play more uncomfortable sounds when warning someone of danger which is used in hearing aids and car sensors. In order to maximise the effect of these devices, the most uncomfortable sound should be played in order to get the user’s attention. Sounds that are “normal” or sounds that are heard often are sounds that people get desensitized to. In contrast, uncomfortable sounds are not something people hear very often because people tend to avoid them which makes the an excellent tool to use to get other’s attention. There are many parts to a sound. In this research, we will be focusing on pitch because it is one of the easiest parts of sound to control.
Research Methods
To find the pitch that is most uncomfortable for people, the research went out to people on the street, showed them a phone with a slider on it and asked them to change the pitch to find a sound that made them the most uncomfortable. The prompt was roughly this: “ 请找出让你最不舒服的声音.” Then the researcher would show them the interface and sometimes pull it for them and sometimes give them the phone if they looked like they were alright with using a phone. The original plan was to allow them to pull the slider for themselves. However people who were not so technologically inclined had trouble pulling the slider so, the researcher decided to pull for all the recipients to make it easier for them. After that, the plan is to tell the respondent the average pitch that the other people chose. The researcher expected this to some degree so, there were buttons built into the interface so that the researcher could save the data to the local device and when the “enter” button was pressed, the data would automatically be sent to another device so as to ensure that if this device fails the data is still be safe. This survey was done in the later hours of the morning near the YuanShan MRT Station.
Results
All numbers use the hertz unit when refering to sound.
Average Most uncomfortable sound: 8105.972222222223
Average For Males: 7751.952380952381
Average For Females: 8601.6
All Data:
| Gender | Pitch |
|---|---|
| M | 5756 |
| M | 3641 |
| M | 11196 |
| M | 9685 |
| F | 7536 |
| M | 6260 |
| M | 7973 |
| M | 13983 |
| M | 8107 |
| F | 8107 |
| F | 14991 |
| M | 3842 |
| M | 3876 |
| F | 6126 |
| F | 10625 |
| M | 4615 |
| M | 5891 |
| F | 3708 |
| M | 8644 |
| F | 6159 |
| M | 9719 |
| M | 11129 |
| M | 2936 |
| M | 9584 |
| M | 3171 |
| M | 10760 |
| F | 8879 |
| M | 12539 |
| F | 10457 |
| F | 8577 |
| F | 12506 |
| M | 9484 |
| F | 9282 |
| F | 4010 |
| F | 7335 |
| F | 10726 |
Discussion
The average most uncomfortable sound was around 8106hz which is a huge difference from the 500hz or below (1)people usually use for car horns. The researcher finds this to be very odd because uncomfortable sounds get people's attention and when you honk a car hron you want to get people's attention. When comparing the results to the researcher's expectations, about 4000hz, it was higher than the researcher originially anticipated. A possible explanation for the results being so high might be that older people find it harder to hear high pitched noises and there were fewer older people at the time the research was conducted. However, it seems that the hearing of the general population is quite good. In contrast, the difference between the most uncomfortable pitch is as the researcher expected, the average most uncomfortable pitch for women is higher than that of men. The researcher theorized this happened because usuaully women can hear higher pitched sounds (2).
Conclusion
With this data, people can make sure that they play sounds of this pitch when they really need to get someone's attention. Things like car horns, bomb sirens, and many more things might want to reconsider the pitch they use. Playing these kinds of sounds might cause people to pay more attention and react quicker.