these noises: annoyance. It doesn’t sound very scientific, but it turns
out to play a big role in how people respond to noise, and therefore,
stress. It’s a simple concept: the more annoyed you are by the
planes/trains/trucks, the worse you feel. Stress is not just a
physiological response; it’s a response that can be mediated by
attitude or what psychologists sometimes call framing. This is why
the adrenaline of skiing off a ledge into a steep chute can fill some
people with energy, euphoria and focus and others with knee-buckling
terror.
I realize this doesn’t bode well for me regarding the airplanes,
since I go out of my way to shake my fists at them. I just hope I don’t
become like eighty-two-year-old Frank Parduski, called “the world’s
first anti-noise martyr” by New Scientist magazine after he was run
over by a motorcyclist he was harassing in order to get him to quiet
down his two-stroke steed. But when visitors to national parks are
told the loud airplanes overhead are part of important military
exercises, many report being less disturbed by them. It’s a good trick
if you don’t mind a dose of propaganda with your nature. It’s not a
plane; it’s patriotism.
There’s some evidence that more introverted or neurotic people
are more annoyed by loud noises. They also may be less likely to
become habituated to them. On the other hand, the louder and more
intrusive the noise, the more likely you will grow annoyed. There’s a
bit of a chicken and egg problem. And whether you like planes or not,
your brain still has to work hard to ignore them, and nobody can
entirely Zen their way out of that.
THE U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE is uncommonly interested in noise
pollution because it operates under a federal mandate to protect its
resources, including, since 2000, natural soundscapes. It’s practically
an impossible task, but as bioacoustical scientist Kurt Fristrup points
out, a little bit of noise regulation can go a long way. Fristrup