Study Finds Whining Is The Most Annoying Sound

GARLAND (CBSDFW.COM) – Many may say nails dragging down a chalkboard or an alarm clock breaking the solace of sleep are the most irritating sounds imaginable. A new study, however, suggests something else: Whining.

The study – Whines, Cries and Motherese: Their Relative Power to Distract – was published in the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology this month.

Study subjects were asked to do a series of simple math problems while listening to different sounds: Someone talking, a baby crying, a child whining and a buzz saw.

According to the research, subjects made the most mistakes when they were subjected to whining.

"Mama! I don't want to go down the slide," Sophia Stinson told her mother, extending her last word by about nine letters too many. The six year old is an expert whiner and showed how easily she could whine on cue.

"Gets on my nerves," her mother said.

Amanda Stinson had taken Sophia and her other daughters to Hawaiian Falls Water Park in Garland.

But Sintson admits when her kids whine, there's no going with the flow.

"If I'm even sitting there and I hear someone else's kid cry; I gotta go!" Stinson said.

Other moms try to redirect. "If they don't stop, we have time out," Carrie Demoor said.

The bottom line? Try to find a quiet place if working on balancing a checkbook, the study suggests.