Motivated Shield From Chronic Noise Environment: Moderation of the Relationship Between Noise Sensitivity and Work Wellbeing by Need for Closure

Stefano Livi; Gennaro Pica; Giuseppe Carrus; Marika Rullo; Marta Gentile

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00663

Motivated Shield From Chronic Noise Environment: Moderation of the Relationship Between Noise Sensitivity and Work Wellbeing by Need for Closure

Front Psychol. 2018 May 28:9:663. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00663. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Stefano Livi¹, Gennaro Pica¹, Giuseppe Carrus², Marika Rullo³, Marta Gentile¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
² Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
³ School of Psychology, University of Kent, Kent, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Several studies have underlined how chronic exposure to environmental noise may have negative effects on performance, wellbeing, and social relations. The present study (N = 90 employees of a motor factory who are chronically exposed to environmental noise) investigated whether the negative effects of chronic exposure of noise-sensitive individuals to noise in the workplace may be moderated by the need for cognitive closure (i.e., an epistemic tendency to reduce uncertainty; NFCC, Kruglanski, 2004). As NFCC has been shown to enhance protection of the focal goal by reducing interference (Kossowska, 2007; Pica et al., 2013), we hypothesized that people with high NFCC should be able to manage the interference coming from environmental noise and concentrate on their tasks more than their low-NFCC counterparts. The results confirm that the negative effects of noise sensitivity on job satisfaction, state anxiety, and turnover intent were higher among low (vs. high)-NFCC individuals.

Keywords: cognitive energetics theory; environmental noise; need for cognitive closure; noise sensitivity; wellbeing; workplace.