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People who are annoyed by the sound of chewing are less likely to be vexed if they think it is made by an animal or other non-human source, rather than a person.

鈥淚 think most people can relate to having some level of aversion to certain sounds,鈥� says Miren Edelstein at the University of California, but people with severe cases are said to have a condition called misophonia. 鈥淚ndividuals with misophonia experience aversion that is so severe and debilitating that it has a major impact on their well-being and quality of life.鈥�

Edelstein and her colleagues wanted to find out if it was just the sounds themselves that people find distressing, or if the wider context of a noise can influence how it is perceived. The team looked at 20 self-identified misophonics and a control group of the same number of people, both with an average age of 30.

The team first presented all participants with audio clips produced by human chewing and clips that sounded similar, such as an animal chewing or someone walking on gravel.

They then repeated these sounds, but this time explained what the participants were hearing 鈥� though they sometimes lied. In this second round, the participants were asked to say what they thought was producing the sound.

Finally, the team showed the participants the video that went with each audio clip, revealing the full context. In each round, participants were asked to rate how uncomfortable each sound made them feel on a scale from 1 to 10.

Those with misophonia found human chewing sounds three times as aversive on average as those without the condition. Misophonics also found human chewing sounds 36 per cent less annoying if they incorrectly believed the noises came from non-human sources, as opposed to when they correctly identified the sounds.

Our expectations of social norms may be behind this, says Edelstein. 鈥淚t seems like this may be the result of some expectation of socially acceptable behaviour and this etiquette being violated,鈥� she says.

鈥淗ow we respond to most sounds is learned rather than innate, so it makes sense that context plays a role,鈥� says Trevor Cox at the University of Salford, UK. He speculates that we may find human chewing sounds more aversive than animal chewing if misophonia is related to the disgust reaction, and hence disease avoidance. 鈥淭he risks of catching something are generally higher from humans than many animals,鈥� he says.

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