Aversive Sound Generator
Made just for fun, rather than pleasing sounds to soothe the mind, emotions, and anxiety, this webpage focuses on highly aversive sounds that distress even individuals who do not suffer from any type of sound aversion.
** PLEASE NOTE! If you have any problems getting this webpage to work, please try using the Chrome browser instead and make sure javascript is enabled!
Instructions
First, click PLAY and select a sound quality you want to hear. You can pick more than one sound as well. Please note! Allow about 5 seconds for audio files to download after hitting play!
Next, you can adjust the equalizer settings to further optimize the sound quality.
Finally, all your custom aversive noise settings can be saved as a link via the SAVE SETTINGS button. The settings will be copied to the clipboard. By pasting, you can share this custom unique link as a bookmark or share with others. You can also DOWNLOAD for your listening pleasure. These features are under construction.
Background Information
There are certain noises that nearly all humans would agree sounds highly aversive and
results in action to try and get away from the unpleasant sound. In a complex and rapidly changing
environment, evolutionarily adaptive behavior requires that such sensory information be extracted and
processed more efficiently for stimuli that are emotionally salient. There was in fact a study published in 2012 that tried to
determine the most aversive sounds from a neurological basis using a fMRI machine. According to the
study, the top 10 most aversive sounds which were evaluated in rank order:
- A knife on a bottle
- A fork on a glass
- Chalk on a blackboard
- A ruler on a bottle
- Nails on a blackboard
- A female scream
- An angle grinder (a power tool)
- Squealing brakes on a bicycle
- A baby crying
- An electric drill