THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC ON RESPONSES TO A DINING AREA

This study investigated the effects of music on responses to a specifi c listening environment. A stall offering advice on welfare issues was set up in a university cafeteria. A loudspeaker situated by the stall played four different types of music, which varied in their complexit y and style, and the design also included a silent control condition. Two hundred and eighty-five subjects completed a questionnaire concern ing their liking for the atmosphere in the cafeteria, how happy they w ould be to return to the cafeteria, their likelihood of visiting the a dvice stall and their liking for the music. Several behavioural measur es were employed, although only a measure of the number of people visi ting the stall yielded a sample of sufficient size for statistical ana lysis. The results indicated that responses to the listening environme nt were predictably associated with responses to the music, and these effects are considered in terms of the style and complexity of the mus ic employed. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited