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This chapter addresses the political history of aircraft noise annoyance and its relationship to sustainability.

Using extensive case studies and secondary sources, the chapter shows how a particular approach to noise annoyance that emerged already accepted large-scale annoyance. The focus is directed towards the black boxing of political decisions with scientific knowledge.

This contribution demonstrates that noise annoyance policy has shaped citizens’ perceptions of aircraft sound and has intensified the associated annoyance. Finally, the discussion considers the significance of the participation of citizens and the political implications of these findings. Currently, participation is predominantly confined within a growth paradigm and reproduces tensions in ecological modernization policies. Participation and protest can inadvertently engage these tensions and question the participatory practices themselves. A moratorium on ‘growth’ might create the necessary space for fundamentally rethinking aviation and sustainability.

This article deals with the determination of the benefits of environmental assets, involving an application for noise. In determining these benefits the so‐called Cost of Illness Method is applied. An important part of the research is the estimation of the relationship between environmental pollution (noise) and the number of lost workdays. This relationship is estimated by using the Lisrel technique with latent variables. The empirical results show that, for the sample concerned, a relationship between noise and lost workdays does not exist. The research also shows that noise causes annoyance and that annoyance influences people′s wellbeing negatively.

In two experiments on reactions to persistent annoyance from another person, participants employed a very orderly verbal escalation sequence that fit a cascading Guttman scale. This began with requests and moved on to demands, and then to complaints, angry statements, threats, harassment, and abuse, in that order. The more escalated the tactic, the fewer people used it. People seldom skipped a step on the way to their most escalated tactic. Two possible explanations for this pattern seemed plausible in light of the data, that it is due to either a widely snared try‐try‐again script or a declining hierarchy of thresholds. Verbal escalation was associated with a negative view of the annoyer's character, while physical escalation was associated with blame and feelings of frustration and anger. Escalation was discouraged by membership in the same group as the annoyer. Loud noise did not encourage escalation in general but promoted the use of angry statements.

The purpose of this article is to analyze how social media activities, in specifically the Facebook page of a car manufacturer, and user interactions with these brand related activities affect the perception of brands and ultimately influence consumers purchase decision. Based on an online survey with users of the corporation's Facebook fanpage, and in accordance to hierarchy of effects theory the author's findings show the positive effect of fanpage engagement on consumers' brand awareness, word of mouth (WOM) activities, and purchase intention. The findings further indicate that annoyance with the fanpage due to information overload leads to negative effects on fanpage commitment and to decreased WOM activities. From a theoretical standpoint the results of this study contribute to understanding of the value-enhancing potential of social media campaigns.

To answer the authors' research questions and test their hypotheses, a study was set up in cooperation with the car brand MINI. To test their hypotheses, the authors applied structural equation modeling with AMOS 18.

The article analyzes the influence of brands’ social media activities and participants' social media involvement on the purchase decision process of consumers. Their findings demonstrate that engagement with a Facebook fanpage has positive effects on consumers' brand awareness, WOM activities and purchase intention. Results further indicate that annoyance with the fanpage leads to negative effects in respect to the overall commitment to and involvement with the fanpage and WOM. The authors' research shows that social media activities indeed affect the purchase decision-making process.

New marketing communication reality presents new challenges and opportunities for companies as purchase decisions are increasingly influenced by social media interactions. People rely more than ever on their social networks when making those decisions. Nevertheless, outcomes of social media activities are still disputed in practice. The effects of social media campaigns on consumers' perception of products and brands as well as the effects on purchase decisions have yet to be better understood. This study therefore investigates how social media activities, in specific the Facebook appearance of a car manufacturer, affect the perception of brands, and ultimately influence the purchase decision process of consumers while considering the risk of creating annoyance. From a theoretical standpoint the results of this study contribute to understanding of the value-enhancing potential of social media campaigns and demonstrate how the perception of brands is influenced through this new communication channel. For brand managers this study is of value, as it shows that social media activities do have a positive influence on brands as they support their management of the purchase process.

Noise measurement and social questionnaire surveys in three residential areas around Mehrabad International Airport (Tehran, Iran) were based upon randomly selected dwellings in each area. A total of 193 individuals responded and many are annoyed and dissatisfied with aircraft noise and in consequence they would like to move. Aircraft noise is the strongest negative environmental factor affecting the residents in the vicinity of Mehrabad Airport and it could be a hazard for their health.

In a multicultural context, this study aims to investigate the effect of ingroup versus outgroup categorization and stereotypes on residents' emotional and behavioral reactions in neighbor‐to‐neighbor conflicts. Based on the literature on the “black sheep effect”, the authors predicted that residents would actually be more irritated by ingroup than outgroup antagonists. Secondly, they predicted that reactions to deviant behavior by an outgroup antagonist would be shaped by the valence of stereotypes about the respective groups.

Residents with either a native‐Dutch or a Turkish background (n=529) completed a questionnaire on outgroup stereotypes, and responded to a conflict situation in which the ethnicity of an antagonist was manipulated between subjects.

Supporting the black sheep effect, results reveal that both native‐Dutch and Turkish residents reported more negative emotions towards an ingroup than an outgroup antagonist. In addition, when confronting an outgroup antagonist, stereotype negativity was related to more negative emotions and intentions for destructive conflict behavior.

The current study demonstrates that residents may actually get irritated more easily by ingroup than outgroup antagonists. Reactions to outgroup antagonists are further moderated by stereotype valence; negative outgroup stereotypes may lead to less tolerance towards outgroup antagonists and higher chances for conflict escalation.

This is the first paper in which evidence for the black sheep effect is obtained in a field study and simultaneously for majority and minority members. In addition, evidence is presented that emotions may mediate the influence of the antagonist's group membership on conflict behavior.

This study aimed to determine the initial odor concentration which commonly urges Thais to make complaints and to propose an off-site limit for odorous emissions.

Odor concentrations measured by Nasal Rangers® and face-to-face survey interviews were simultaneously conducted with 122 residents located near 101 manufacturing centers in 20 provinces of Thailand. Along with the measured values and odor strength verbally rated by trained assessors, the number of complaint intentions, annoyance levels and health symptoms of residents were reported.

The odor concentrations in the inspected houses were <2, 2, 4, 7, 15, 30 and 60 D/T. The trained assessors stated that at the concentration of 4D/T, most odors were likely to be objectionable and unbearable when odor concentrations were higher. Correspondingly, about 80% of residents exposed to odors at this level felt some annoyance and reported health symptoms and therefore intended to register a complaint. At lower concentrations, the annoyance level as well as the decision to complain likely depended on other factors such as hedonic tone and exposure frequency.

The proposed off-site reference value for odor complaint assessment was 4D/T. However, in the case of lower concentrations, additional relevant factors were crucially required to investigate the complaint.

This finding will help local authorities diminish subjective discretion on whether or not an odor constitutes a nuisance.

Technology proliferation is on a movement to outpace an 18^th-century computing industry paradigm known as “Moore’s law.” This law establishes the rate of technological advancements. The premise of this edict is evident in our coupled workplace with the integration of an emerging technology known as Ambient Intelligence (Aml).

The modernization of the traditional office is designed to be collaborative and environment-friendly. Modernization is primarily due to ambient intelligence. “Opportunities for process and business improvements will derive from a “real-world Web” of smart objects and ambient intelligence, and from consumer-oriented trends such as Web business platforms, aesthetic design, and mobile robots as they move into the business world” (Fenn and Smith, 2005, para. 1). It is safe to reason that ambient intelligence is on a trendy trajectory in many business-oriented workplaces, worksites and workspaces. The business culture is inconspicuously changing before our eyes. Architects and designers are seamlessly incorporating this trend into their respective end-to-end processes of constructing new or retrofitting existing office spaces.

Its unnoticeably embedded adoption is in conference rooms, doorways, elevators, escalators, lighting, meeting rooms, phone displays, and walkways. As ambient technology naturally collides with the functional way an office professional interactively operates through a usual workday, its adaptation becomes seemingly smart and swift. The interesting facet of this technology is that one would not know it unless it was pointed out.

Although there are equipment and devices that offer a singular approach of being convenient and hands-free, there exist common misconceptions and unassuming annoyances that are in place as inherent issues. Once the work environment impedes productivity or natural flow of movement, we realize something is different. These differences align to the surrounding tangible and intangible cues. The information presented in this chapter will disclose the underlying issues at a practical level.

This study aims to examine activity-related sound levels and pupils’ perceptions of the acoustic environment in two classrooms, one of which was a traditional classroom (Reference classroom, reverberation time (RT) 0.54 s) and the other a refurbished classroom (Demo classroom, RT 0.32 s).

Three types of data were gathered: room acoustic measurements, activity sound levels during different activities and pupils’ subjective experience concerning factors related to acoustics. Pupils, 10–11 years old (N = 34), estimated their subjective experience in general and after four test lessons. Teachers planned the test lessons to have four different lesson types: quiet work, one-person speaking, group work and activity-based work. The sound levels of activities were measured during the test lessons.

The activity sound levels were 2–13 dB L_Aeq lower in the Demo classroom than in the Reference classroom, depending on lesson type. Pupils were less annoyed by noise in the Demo than in the Reference classroom. Pupils’ speech was the most annoying sound source. More pupils were annoyed by it in the Reference classroom (65%) than in the Demo classroom (15%). Hearing the teacher while not seeing her face, concentrating on teaching and sitting in one’s place were estimated easier in the Demo classroom than in the Reference classroom.

This study offers a new approach using test lessons for studying activity sounds in schools. Activity sounds and their annoyance can be significantly diminished by classroom refurbishments.