Environmental noise level as a determinant of helping behavior.

Abstract

The results of research dealing with the effects of nois, on intrapersonal behavior suggest a variety of possible consequences for interpersonal functiDning. The effects of various levels of on simple helping behavior were explored in a laboratory and a field setting for a total of 132 subjects. In botb experiments, subjects exposed to 8S-db. white were less likely than those in lower conditions to offer assistance to a person in need. The results were interpreted on the basis of prior research suggesting that noiseproduced arousal leads to a restriction in attention deployment or cue utilization. Alternative accounts in terms of the effect of on moDd and on drive level were also considered. The effect of on intrapersonal behavior has long been of interest to general experimental and physiological psyebologists, and tbe publicatian in recent years of a number of volumes on this topic (e.g., Broadbent, 1971; Kry ter, 1970; Welch & Weleb, 1970) attests to the significance tbat these issues are currently accorded. Public cancern over noise pollution, congressiona1 legislatian dealing with permissible exposure levels in industrial settings, and work sueb as that at' Cameron, Robertson, and Zaks (1972), suggesting tbat may be associated with tbe incidence of <hronie and acute illness, provide further impetus for researCh of this sort. Investigations of tbe interpersonal impact of ambient noise, however, are much less in evidence, tbough Glass and Singer (1972) have provided a nice bridge between these two . complementary focuses, and there has been work on the relationship between and conformity (Dustin, 1968), aggression (Geen & O'N eal, 1969; Geen & Powers, 1971), and verbal disinhibition (Holmes & Holzman, 1966).