Necessity, Control, and Predictability of Noise as Determinants of Noise Annoyance

Summary A survey was conducted to test hypotheses dealing with the relationship between the necessity, controllability, and predictability of noise and noise annoyance in five different noise environments. With the exception of noise on the job, the results obtained for the other noise environments indicated partial support for the hypotheses dealing with the necessity and controllability of noise and no support for the hypothesis dealing with the predictability of noise. The data showed a very low positive relationship between necessity and annoyance and between control and annoyance. Partial correlations indicated that necessity and control were independently correlated with annoyance.