In the course of measuring the real‐ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) of experimenter‐inserted E‐A‐R™ foam earplugs on 100 subjects, it was noted that attenuation was significantly correlated with hearing level (for normal listeners, HTL<20 dB) at test frequencies from 2–8 kHz. The relationship was most robust at 6 and 8 kHz. For hearing levels greater than 20 dB, attenuation appeared independent of hearing level. A hypothesis was developed to explain the relationship for the normal listeners, based upon the fact that the high‐frequency attenuation of the plug was nearly bone‐conduction‐limited. The hypothesis suggested that the attenuation of a foam earplug modified to give substantially lower protection would not exhibit the same relationship. Data for such a plug were collected for 50 subjects, and indeed demonstrated no correlation between attenuation and hearing level. Implications of the experiment with regard to (a) hearing level requirements for hearing protector attenuation test subjects, (b) utilization of hearing impaired listeners to measure REAT at suprathreshold (with respect to normal listeners) sound levels, and (c) constancy of hearing protector attenuation as a function of sound level, are discussed.