
Why do we turn the music down when parking? - DocFeind
http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/question/216077-why-do-we-turn-the-music-down-when-parking
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sandworm101
Attention? Neuroscience? Talk about overthinking a problem. I lost respect for
the article when it didn't use the word "noise" even once.

There is a little bone/muscle combination in your ear (??Tensor Timpany??)
that acts as a gain control. While you drive, the background road noise causes
your ear to reduce its gain. This makes all noises seem less and protects your
ear. Then when you stop/park the road noise is gone, the muscles relax, and
the music now seems louder. So you turn the volume down because it is
uncomfortably loud for you, not due to any sociological or neurological
factors.

This is why you need to turn the volume up in a convertible. It is also why
people sing louder in the shower because, to them near the white noise of the
water, they don't seem as loud.

And this process causes stress onboard planes or other constantly-loud
environments. That little muscle in your ear gets tired. Stress around loud
noises is partially a physical rather than purely psychological stress.

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kkitay
I'd like to hear it if I scrape or bump something. My parking space is really
close quarters.

There's probably a lot more going on re: concentration and the distraction of
music, but that's one factor.

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ansible
Besides the distraction of music in general, there's a couple other factors
going on. One is that parking is a relatively less practiced skill than
driving, so it should naturally require more concentration. It is just plain
awkward as well. Second, unless your stereo system automatically adjusts the
volume level based on speed, the music will seem louder than when you were
driving.

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calbear81
It has nothing to do with my ability to multi-task and everything to do with
preventing me from getting blasted with music when I turn my car on the next
time. I like turning on the radio and gradually bringing the sound up to the
desired level.

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lukaslalinsky
One obvious reason is that I want to hear the parking sensors beeping clearly.
:)

But in general when starting the car or parking, I want to hear as much of the
sounds around me as I can. It's not that music is a big distraction, but it's
blocking other sounds. I want to hear the engine of a nearby car, I want to
hear kids running on the street, people talking, etc.

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dorfsmay
Agreed, especially those natural parking sensor like the noise of driving over
something and slowly scraping a wall with your car!

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coldtea
To concentrate better at the task at hand? Isn't it obvious?

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michaelt

      Isn't it obvious?
    

If you ask HN whether it's unprofessional to listen to headphones while
working in an open-plan office, I'd expect at least a few posts saying "music
doesn't stop me concentrating, in fact it helps me concentrate"

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dghughes
I've never understood people who can do that maybe it's a white noise effect
not so much the music I can't do that.

Actually I just realized that's not true I can listen to instrumental music
specifically classical just not pop or singing if I am trying to do something
like study.

I'm middle aged 45 years-old my concentration is getting bad but classical
music is OK all other music and any other noise is not.

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scottlocklin
What do you mean "we?" I certainly don't do this.

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cosarara97
I've never seen someone do this.

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001sky
hand-eye co-ordination has a timing element. that timing element is based off
of emipirical sampling from the environment. music is also structured in time,
but it pollutes the time-sampling process when you do something like parralel
park with limited visibility.the brain doesn't have enough bandwidth to
process incomplete information sets (parking) and embellished information sets
(music) at the same time.

TLDR: music is distracting (in this context)

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natch
Because I don't want to draw more attention to myself as I reach a
destination. And to avoid the harsh feeling of a sudden cutoff of the sound.
Distraction too but that's maybe 10% of the reason.

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stcredzero
The sidebar picture seems like the 21st century version of Julia's outfit from
1984.

