Music and on-hold waiting time

Members of the general public called a special telephone number in response to a newspaper advertisement asking for research volunteers. They were pla ced on hold, and the nature of the on-hold stimuli was manipulated. The pri ncipal measures were actual waiting time, estimated waiting time and adject ival ratings of the on-hold stimuli. These indicated that on-hold waiting t ime is influenced positively by stimuli that are liked and those which 'fit ' callers' expectations. Furthermore, variations in actual waiting time can not be attributed to the distorting effect of on-hold stimuli on callers' i nternal timing mechanisms.