The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Background music has been found to have beneficial, detrimental, or no effect on a variety of behavioral and psychological outcome measures. This article reports a meta-analysis that attempts to summarize the impact of background music. A global analysis shows a null effect, but a detailed examination of the studies that allow the calculation of effects sizes reveals that this null effect is most probably due to averaging out specific effects. In our analysis, the probability of detecting such specific effects was not very high as a result of the scarcity of studies that allowed the calculation of respective effect sizes. Nonetheless, we could identify several such cases: a comparison of studies that examined background music compared to no music indicates that background music disturbs the reading process, has some small detrimental effects on memory, but has a positive impact on emotional reactions and improves achievements in sports. A comparison of different types of background music reveals that the tempo of the music influences the tempo of activities that are performed while being exposed to background music. It is suggested that effort should be made to develop more specific theories about the impact of background music and to increase the methodological quality of relevant studies.

Research into practice: evaluation of Skills Hub content and implications for library staff development in the creation of video OERs

“…Technical problems that hindered comprehension were poor sound quality, fluctuations in volume, interference and background music. This finding supports previous research in multimedia learning theory and elsewhere, which indicates that extraneous sound or music hinders task completion and information retention (Kämpfe, et al, 2010;Moreno & Mayer, 2000a), particularly when music is faster and louder (Thompson et al, 2012). Although Thompson et al (2012) cite evidence that softer music has the potential to aid concentration, the present data indicate that music elicits a largely negative reaction, and should thus be avoided in the interests of creating resources appropriate for the largest range of viewers.…”

An Experimental Study on the Influence of Soundscapes on People’s Behaviour in an Open Public Space

“…His research suggested that slower music is related to a slower pace of peoples' movement in a retail environment, and, as a result, more time and money spent there; while fast musical tempo reproduced in a restaurant caused a shorter duration of eating time [6]. Focusing more on the effect of music tempo, Kampfe, Sedlmeier, and Renkewitz [7] asserted that hearing background music characterized by a fast tempo leads to an increase in the pace of certain behaviours, such as drawing, reading, walking and running, and eating and drinking. In general, there are two fundamental hypotheses for these effects; the first is the synchronization of the movements to the musical beat, while the second is the increase in the arousal found with fast-tempo music [8].…”

Music As An Influential Factor In Learning

“…The authors did not find that background music had an effect on verbal learning (Jäncke & Sandmann, 2010). Based on a meta-analysis, similar results were achieved by Kämpfe, Sedlmeier & Renkewitz (2011) who, however, looked at many areas of human activity (commerce, sports, transportation, etc.) and point out discrepancies in the research methodology of individual studies that can distort results and lead to erroneous conclusions.…”