By Farida Khanam In an age dominated by noise – both literal and digital – silence is fast becoming a forgotten virtue. Yet, ...

But silence, whatever it is, is not a sound—it's the absence of sound," said lead author Rui Zhe Goh, a Johns Hopkins University graduate student in philosophy and psychology. "Surprisingly, what our ...

Silence is often interpreted as awkward, rude, or unproductive. In contrast, many East Asian cultures view silence as a sign of respect, thoughtfulness, and even wisdom .

Chaz Firestone, a cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins and another author of the study, said that if silence is “not really a sound, and yet it turns out that we can hear it, then evidently ...