Negative effects of noise on behaviour
...ession. Geen and O’Neal (1969) found that giving participants a burst of white noise made them more aggressive than watching an aggressive film. Participants were divided into two groups, one watching an aggressive film and the other watching a non-aggressive film. Half the participants in each group were given a two-minute burst of white noise. Participants were given the chance to be aggressive to a confederate of the researcher by giving them electric shocks (no shocks were actually given). Participants who saw the aggressive film and experienced the white noise were overall most aggressive and gave more shocks and those who saw the non-aggressive film and experienced white noise were more aggressive than those who saw the aggressive film and no white noise. Researchers have investigated the effects of noise on helping behaviour. Matthews and Canon (1975) conducted a lab experiment and a field experiment. In the lab experiment each participant waited to take part in an experiment with a seated confederate who was sat opposite reading with a pile of books on his lap. Participants were exposed to one of 48dB of everyday noise or 65dB or 85dB white noise. The researcher called to the confederate who...