Research Paper on "Behavior Research Study Review: The Effect"

Research Paper 5 pages (1563 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Behavior Research

Study review: The effect of music on atmosphere and purchase intentions in a cafeteria

The purpose of the research study entitled "The effect of music on atmosphere and purchase intentions in a cafeteria" by Adrian C. North and David J. Hargreaves from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology was to study the impact of specific types of music upon consumer behavior. Naturally, the implications of such research studies are of great interest to marketers. Retailers have long used everything from Musak to Christmas carols to encourage shoppers to buy certain products, or simply linger in the store longer. Only recently has scientific methodology been applied to consumer behavior. The study attempted to better understand the atmospheric functions of music in commercial environments; namely, the effect of music on the perceived characteristics of the place in which it is played, and also on purchaser's behavior.

The study design was to use three different musical styles and a silent control condition over four days at a student cafeteria. The researchers admitted that four days was not a long time, but it "unfortunately proved impossible to gain a longer period of access" (North & Hargreaves, 1998, p. 2257). On each day, either classical music, contemporary British pop music, easy listening music, or no music at all was played. Diners were "asked to use a series of adjectival scales in rating the characteristics of the cafeteria, the actual characteristics of the music playing, and the stereotypical characteristics of the musical style playing. Subjects were also presented with a list of food items which were available from the cafeteria, and asked to state the maximum that they would be prepared to pay for each item" (North & Hargreaves, 1998, p.2257). All of the test subjects were students and presumably frequent diners at the cafeteria. Thus the maximization of generalizability of this study was extremely low (McGrath, 1982). Although the purported propose of the research was the effects of music in general, only one location was selected, one type of business enterprise, and a single consumer demographic. Moreover, the familiarity of the students with the setting further narrowed the study's scope, given that many times people are not familiar with the business setting in which music is played. Students often have mixed views of their school cafeterias, since they often view themselves as a captive audience and must buy food there because of scheduling demands. These are very different conditions than might exist when shoppers elect to enter a store or restaurant.

Presumably, the advantage of such a controlled setting satisfies another goal of behavioral research: the filtering out of other extraneous variables (McGrath 1982). But even here, the research design is not really satisfactory. The compression of four days could mean that other events in the student's lives might affect their food choices, even though the time of the study was chosen to minimize external influences (North & Hargreaves, 1998, p. 2259). The 'existential realism' (another of McGrath's terms) is also relatively low -- despite the real-life location of the cafeteria, the format of data-gathering regarding types of food choices was quite problematic. As well as rating their perceptions of the cafeteria on different days, when different types of music was played, subjects were also asked to rate the maximum price they would pay for certain items at the cafeteria. However, assumption was that the subject's articulated views are the same as what they would or actually did choose to eat, despite the fact that articulated food behavior often very different than actual food behavior. Subjects might be influenced in terms of what the music made them think of, but not alter actual consumption patterns, given that the physical act of parting with money might be very different than the theoretical purchasing of an item.

Furthermore, the limited nature of the population group is also thrown into sharp relief by the study design: students might have a different perception of music than older people, given that they are more used to noise and distraction (the study designers admit that older individuals might have perceived the popular music in a more negative fashion or at least a different fashion in the article's concluding section). The musical intervals and on-site surveys were deployed only at lunchtime, from 11:00am-2:30pm. This sampling might elicit very select population of students: science students with earlier classes might eschew lunch, and simply just eat in the laboratories, humanities students with late classes might be just getting out of bed. A select group of majors or select demographic might have been selected and influenced the internal validity of the study design.

Also, students as a whole might be more budget-focused or food focused than the average person: given that students are often 'scraping by' for food, they might have a different view of hunger and food economics than the average person. Another group might have rated the economic valuation of the food items less dramatically. This also highlights the problem that the only commodity in relation to music and ambiance that was tested was food, in a food-related setting: individuals might be more influenced by music in regards to such a sensuous item, versus buying home improvement tools.

The research design could best be described as relational or non-contrived. While not specifically descriptive and observational (circumstances were manipulated and students were openly interviewed), the experiment was also not conducted as a controlled laboratory research study, in which students were asked to dine in a room under carefully screened circumstances. The independent or manipulated variable was that of the music and the dependent variables were the ratings assigned to the environment and self-reported food choices. In general, "pop music was associated with the environment being perceived as generally upbeat and assertive / aggressive, and also as least peaceful. Classical music was associated with the environment being perceived as generally up-market or dignified/elegant, and as least upbeat" and easy listening "had few positive effects on responses" (North & Hargreaves, 1998, p. 2260).

Another obvious threat to the internal validity of the study's conclusions was that different types of students might perceive the music differently, as well as the fact that the music might have a greater or lesser impact upon the habits and purchasing of different demographic of shoppers. The specific group of students who often have lunch might prefer popular music, while a late night group of students might prefer alternative music. Additionally, even the same type of students might also be influenced by music in different ways, at different times of day. It is possible that the majority of students might dislike any kind of music being played in the morning, for breakfast, while most students might like music being played late at night.

Thus, the subject population and the context might have been the reason for the responses regarding the music, and the ratings of the cafeteria might not have been primarily caused by the presence of specific types of music. It might be that the specific population of students was influenced by music in particular ways, and the time of day influenced their perceptions equally if not more than the music. The short duration of the study and the selection of the subjects all call into question the causal relationships.

Threats to external validity on a macro social context are even greater to the study. Students are likely to view music in a more positive fashion than other demographic groups, given that they often study to music and, even if they do not, must tolerate noisy dorm environments. Also, a cafeteria with music might be viewed very differently than a grocery store or department store. A more comprehensive study design would be to survey shoppers and diners at a variety of types of locations, and use different… READ MORE

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