Mr. Varun is a very sarcastic human being. He is always looking to reply with sarcasm and therefore it is difficult to know whether he is serious about what he says. As such the communicating with Mr. Varun is not very effective. Which of the following noises/barriers best describes the factor leading to ineffective communication with Mr. Varun?

Solution

Noise is anything that interferes with communication. There are broadly 4 types of noise: Psychological noise is mental interference in the speaker or listener. Three examples of psychological noise are wandering thoughts, preconceived ideas, and sarcasm. Physiological barriers of communication occur due to the physical condition of sender or receiver which might even be physical disabilities. It includes sensory dysfunction and other physical dysfunctions. Examples of physiological noise on the sender’s side include articulation problems, mumbling, talking too fast, talking too slow, forgetting to pause, forgetting to breathe. An example of physiological noise on the listener’s side is hearing problems. Maybe the listener can’t hear high tones as clearly as they used to. For some, low tones are the problem. Their difficulty in literally hearing words and sounds becomes physiological noise. Physical noise is interference that is external to both speaker and listener; it hampers the physical transmission of the signal or message. Examples of physical noise are loud party at the neighbors while you’re trying to record, loud kids who don’t want to take their nap, irritating hum of your computer, air conditioner, or heater, etc. Semantic noise is interference created when the speaker and listener have different meaning systems. Use of jargons, abstract ideas, using different language can be examples of semantic noise.