Why do I find silence unbearable?

CrowdScience listener Ziqi doesn’t like silence, particularly when she’s at home alone. She wonders if it’s because silence is so unusual in the natural world that we see it as a sign of danger.

Marnie Chesterton tests her own tolerance for silence and finds out whether there’s any basis to Ziqi’s theory. She meets acoustics engineer Trevor Cox in the UK to discover whether silence is something we can measure and she steps into an anechoic chamber, a place that’s designed to absorb all sound.

She also talks to researcher Eric Pfeifer in Germany, who is exploring the impact of spending time in silence and has evidence to suggest that it can in fact be a positive experience.

Neuroscientist Marta Moita tells Marnie about her research on rats and how they communicate that there’s a threat in their environment. Her discovery may be the answer to listener Ziqi’s question.