Our Daily Bread , June 6, 1994. One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had.
Noise affects human behavior.
In one experiment carried out by psychologists, a student leaving a library intentionally dropped an armload of books. Then the experimenters brought out a lawn mower without a muffler and started it near where a student would again intentionally drop the books. It was clear that behavior changed because of the earsplitting sound of the nearby lawn mower. In experiments in Los Angeles, researchers found that children who lived in neighborhoods near the airport could not complete certain tasks undertaken when jets were landing and taking off as easily as children who lived in quiet neighborhoods. Some studies of prison conditions have shown that the high levels of noise causes more complaints by prisoners than the food or other prison conditions do.