Through experience, I’ve learned to associate car horns with danger, or at least with someone trying to get my attention. How did this happen? Some sounds are intrinsically soothing while others are frightening. Although there is a great deal of interpersonal variation, we are born with a predisposition toward interpreting sounds in particular ways. Abrupt, short, loud sounds tend to be interpreted by many animals as an alert sound; we see this when comparing the alert calls of birds, rodents, and apes. Slow onset, long, and quieter sounds tend to be interpreted as calming, or at least
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