DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC IN A STORE ENHANCE SALESPERSONS' PERSUASIVENESS?

Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2000,91,405-424. 0 Perceptual and Motor S M s 2000

DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC IN A STORE ENHANCE SALESPERSONS' PERSUASIVENESS? '

JEAN-CHARLES CHEBAT DOMINIQUE VAILLANT

Departmenf of ~Marketztzg HEC-Monfreal School of Marzagernen! HEC-Montreal School of Managenten f

Departmettt of Lz~zgztirtlcs Uniuersily of Qltibec in Montreal

Sz~tnmary.-Background music has been studied as a key element of the store atmosphere in terms of irs emotional effects; however. previous srudies have shown also thar music may have cognitive influence on consumers. How does music affect the salespersons' persuasive efforts within the store? To answer [his question an experimental study was designed to assess the effects of four levels of arousing music conditions (no-Ion,-moderate-high arousing music). The level of pleasure of the musical pieces was controlled for. Music does not moderate signiEicandv [he effects of [he salespersons on the intent to buy, but low and moderately arouqlnr: music (similarly low and moderately interesring musical pieces) does influence s ~ g n d ~ c ~ n r l y the effects on the acceptance of the salesperson's arguments and the "desire to affhate," i.e., to enter into communication.

Background music has been extensively studied in the field of "store atmospherics," as it is called by Rotler (1973), that is, "the abhty of the physical environment to influence behaviors and to create an image (which) is particularly apparent for service businesses such as hotels, restaurants, professional offices, banks, retail stores, and hospitals" (Bitner, 1992, p. 57). One of the key tenets of the 'store atmospherics' model developed by Bitner (1992), called servicescape is that environmental variables such as background music may enhance "approach behaviors" which "include all positive behaviors that might be directed at a particular place, such as desire to stay, explore, work, and affhate" as defined by Mehrabian and Russell (1974, p. 61). Store managers may be very interested to enhance the 'desire to affhate' between salesclerks and potential customers through background music.

Bitner (1992) summarized as follows the interactive effects of pleasure and arousal in services settings:

'The authors gratefully acknowledge the research granc received from the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada. Address enquiries to Jean-Charles Chebat, Chair of Marketing, Ecoles des HEC, 3000 CBte Ste-Catherine, MonrrCal (Qc) Canada H3T 2A7.

J-C. CHEBAT, ET AL.

any environment, whether natural or manmade, can be located in a two-dimensional space reflecting peoples' emotional response to the place. Research shows that emotional response measured on those dimensions can predict behaviors with respect to the environment. For example, environments that &cit feelings of pleasure are likely to be ones where people want LO spend time and money (. . .), whereas unpleasant environments are avoided. Simil ;~rl~, arousing environments are viewed positively unless the excitement is combined with unpleasanmess (. . .). That is, unpleasant environments that are also high in arousal (lots of stimulation, noise, confusion) are particularly avoided (p. 61).

Surprisingly, the influence of a store's ambience on salesperson's persuasion remains researched by only one study, that of Sharma and Stafford (in press), who examined the effects of global store atmosphere (discount vs prestige store) on the credibility and persuasion of retail salespeople.

Studies on the effects of background music as an atmospheric element centered mostly on mood (e.g., Smith & Morris, 1976; Gardner, 1985; Bru- ner, 1990; Dubk, Chebat, & Morin, 1995), time perception (Zakay, 1989; Za- kay & Hornlk, 1991), as well as intention to purchase and behavior (Smith & Curnow, 1966; M h a n , 1982, 1986; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990).

Background music may also have cognitive effects. For instance, music may either enhance consumers' attention to salesclerks' persuasion or com- pete with it. There is no need to stress how important this question is for marketers: in the first case, background music is a commercial strategic tool; in the other case, it is a nuisance. The question is to understand which type of music has which effects. Uninformed choice of background music in a retail environment may simply backfire.

Studies on the influence of music on some central cognitive aspects, such as recall and attention, and on emotional aspects, pleasure and arousal in particular, are reviewed first. We then propose a model integrating the effects of music on emotional and cognitive dimensions. We empirically investigate the effects of the arousal and interest induced by music in the context of travel services. Our results lead to practical implications for s e h g practice as well as suggestions for future research.

Cognitive Effects of Music The literature on background music in stores has mainly overlooked the

cognitive effects of music. On the contrary, the advertising literature has put much emphasis on such effects. This literature is all the more relevant since consumers are exposed to both advertising messages and backgrouncl music: is music competing with or helping the advertisement? This question is similar to the question related to the effects of background music on salesclerks' persuasiveness. The model presented below borrows from the advertising literature in terms of cognitive effects. This is the first part of the literature review. Then, the literature on 'store atmospherics' is also examined, especially in terms of emotions induced by music and their effects on the 'desire

DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC ENHANCE PERSUASIVENESS? 407

to affdiate', that is, the intent to interact between salesclerks and consumers, which is obviously central to the commercial success of retail strategies.

Effects of music-induced emotions on memory in the advertising context.-Several researches have shown that music may affect recall and persuasion as well as influence consumers' response to advertising (Gorn, 1982; Kellaris & Cox, 1989; Alpert & Alpert, 1990; MacInnis & Park, 1991). In- deed, some studies have shown that background music is Uely to fachtate learning. The theory of "mood-state dependent recall" proposes that material encoded within a specific emotional context can be retrieved more easily from an individual's memory when the individual is in the same mood state as when information was encoded (Blaney, 1986; Peeters & D'Ydewalle, 1987; Albersnagel, 1988; Eifert, Crail, Carey, & O'Connor, 1988; Eich & Metcalfe, 1989). Thus, mood stands as a moderating variable which affects memory positively (Blaney, 1986).

A few studies aiming to explore mood effects on cognitive processes have shown that indviduals associate encoded material with some elements of the environmental context whether the latter is internal or external. Bow- er's "Associative Network Theory" (1981) focuses on how such associations take place: memory can be compared with an associative network of events and emotions within which events are considered as memory units that are associated with emotional states experienced during the event. Bower's model (1981) states that these emotional states act as nodes which attract all the memory units that have been involved during a given emotion. The strength of the association depends on the intensity of the emotions related to the event. As soon as an emotion node is activated, all the memory units attach- ed to it become accessible.

Effects of muric-induced emotions on attention in the advertising context.-For some authors, the first characteristic of music that is most likely to influence message reception is its abhty to attract attention, which refers to the activation or the arousing potential of a musical sound (Kroeber-Riel, 1979). Accordmg to Hecker (1984), music that attracts attention should direct that attention towards the advertising and improve receptivity to the sole message. The contradiction lies in the fact that listeners sometimes focus so much on the music that they disregard the message. In such a case, music has a distractive effect and hinders the reception and processing of the message. Wakshlag, Reitz, and Z~lLnan (1982) also showed that music reduces learning from a program when it increases the attention given to that program. Similarly, M a c b (1988) asserted that an individual can become so attentive to music and so captivated by it that the advertiser's central message is ignored. Music is likely to prove distractive when it is unrelated to the concept or the main theme. Therefore, that attention-getting music may have positive or negative effects on information processing which may depend on

408 J-C. CHEBAT, ET AL.

the consistency between the sense conveyed by music and that conveyed by the verbal message.

MacInnis and Park (1991) studied the effects of background music "fit" with the advertised product. They found that (music) "fit affected message- based processing through its effects on attention to the message" (p. 171); more precisely, "the higher the fit, the higher the attention to the message" (p. 169). Low music fit generates negative emotions, which, in turn, brings about negative attitudes to the advertisement and to the products.

Similarly, Kellaris, Cox, and Cox (1993) demonstrated that cognitive measures of advertising performance (recall and recognition) are influenced by the interaction of two musical properties: music which draws attention and shows congruence between that music and the message. When such congruence is strong, attention-drawing music positively contributes to some aspects of advertising recall and recognition. On the contrary, attention-drawing music seems to decrease auditors' vigilance and distract advertising processing when congruence is weak, which is detrimental to recall. As a result, music may have opposite effects on attention, i.e., focusing or distracting effects.

Effects of music-induced arousal on attention in psychological s/udies.- While advertising studies have mainly focused on music-induced pleasure, few have centered on arousal, the other major dimension of mood. Accord- ing to the model of attentive-behavior arousal, sensorial arousal plays a critical role in maintaining a subject's arousal. Deching performance during vigilance tasks has often been attributed to an overall decrease in subjects' arousal levels, which contributes to reduce sensibhty to a signal and increases the probabhty that the signal be omitted. According to McBain (1961), increas- ing arousal by presenting external environmental stimuli would be a way to maintain vigilance performance over time. By the same token, Tarriere and Wisner (19621, Ware, Kowal, and Baker (19641, and Wokoun (1963) have found that vigilance performance improves dramatically when arousing conditions of the background music are variable rather than constant.

Davenport (1974) studied the effects of four background music conditions on the efficiency of a visual vigilance task: continuous presence of music, presence of background music following a fixed, variable, or random time interval. Hts results show that both random and variable intervals keep the of a visual vigilance task at a level significantly higher than that under fixed interval or continuous presence of music.

Corhan and Gounard (1976) studied the influence of two kinds of music (rock and 'easy-listening'). They found that their participants exposed to rock music reached significantly higher performance on cognitive tasks. They explained that in the case of rock music, arousal is more discontinuous and contains more uncertain elements than the 'easy-listening' music. Therefore,


it may be suggested by these findmgs that discontinuous and changing arousing levels enhance consumers' attention towards the arguments presented by a sales person. However, some major studes contradict this theory. First, Smith and Morris (1977), who have also studied differential effects of soothing music and arousing music on concentration, found that participants' concentration is higher when they are exposed to soothing music rather than arousing music. High arousal may hamper information processing, especially when the cask is complex (Berlyne, 1960; Zajonc, 1965). Besides, Hornik (1988) has shown that information processing becomes less efficient when arousal goes beyond a given threshold. Second, Borling (1981) examined the effects of soothing music on alpha rhythms (defined as the cerebral activity comprised between 8 and 12 Hz) as well as the attention focus of participants both high and low in creativity. He suggested that the use of soothing music can help indviduals' ability to focus their attention or learn because of its physiological effects. As their alpha rhythm production rises when listening to soothing music, participants are in a better position to focus their attention at a higher level. Bo rhg (1981) showed that whatever the creativity level, the scores on a test consisting of finding one's way in a labyrinth drawn on a sheet paper are higher when subjects are exposed to arousing music; however, there is no difference in the production of alpha rhythms between groups. Therefore, it seems that soothing music can improve individuals' abhty to focus their attention on a task. Chebat, Gthas-Chebat, and Flliatrault (1993) showed that mood affects attention: the worse the mood, the higher the attention. Furthermore, when exposed to both music and visual s t imd , consumers dvide their attention between the two sensory sources of stimulation; Chebat, et al. (1993) concluded that "the very presence of music is lrkely to create a distracting effect from visual cues" (p. 1013), which supports what Madsen (1970) ~o in t ed out, "there is no such a thing as simultaneous focus of attention" (p. 324).

Effects of Music-induced Arousal on Purchasing Behavior and Interaction with Salesclerks

Effects of music-induced arousal on purchasing behavior.-In adhtion to affecting attention, music influences behaviors. To dustrate this point, several researchers have studied the influence of the different components of music on consumers' purchasing behavior in the services area (Smith & Curnow, 1966; Milliman, 1982, 1986; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990). Most research has shown that tempo and volume can directly influence consumers' purchasing behavior.

Millirnan (1982) examined the effects of musical tempo on the purchasing behavior of consumers in large grocery stores. He found that a slow tern- po was associated with slowing down individuals as they move along alleys

410 J-C. CHEBAT. ET AL

and significantly increased the total volume of sales. Conversely, a fast tempo was related to the opposite effects.

In the same vein, Mllliman (1986) stated that the tempo of background music in a restaurant affects both the duration of meals and the amount of bills. His study shows that consumers, when exposed to background music with a slow tempo, tend to take more time to complete their meal (56 vs 45 minutes) and stay seated longer (47 vs 34 minutes). They found also that the musical tempo can influence significantly the consumption of alcoholic bev- erages of regular customers during their meal. Both studies by Mllliman (1982, 1986) thus confirm the existence of a direct effect of musicnl tempo on consumers' purchasing behavior.

Findings by Herrington and Capella (1996), however, contradict those of Milliman (1982). They found that the tempo and the volume of background music had no significant association with either the duration of shopping or the amount of expenses.

Effects of rnusic-induced arousal on desire to affiliate and buyer-seller interaction.-Several researchers it1 marketing and psychology have studied the effects of ambient music on individuals' desire to affiliate in various con- texts (Stratton & Zalalowski, 1984; DubC, et al., 1995; Chebat, Gelinas- Chebat, Vaninsky, & Fhatrault, 1996). A few studies in the field o j chical psychology have demonstrated that the existence of background music can influence the way people interact. Ambient music favors verbal exchanges as well as affhative behaviors such as visual contacts or smiles among patients in psychiatric hospitals (Dollins, 1956; Sommer, 1957).

Similarly, in a study focusing on the effects of various background music on patients' interactions during psychotherapy sessions, relaxing music has been shown to induce patients to interact-whether benveen one another or with the therapist-more than arousing music or no music at all (Prue- ter & Mezzano, 1973).

Soothing background music was shown experimentally to favor verbal interaction among members of a focus group during problem-solving sessions (Stratton & Zalalowski, 1984). Individuals exposed to this kind of' music interacted more and devoted more time to solving a problem than - .

other indviduals exposed to an arousing music or no music at all. More- over, individuals in the control group \\rho were not exposed to music were shown to interact least and devote the least time to problem solving. Strat- ton and Zalalowski (1984) concluded that soothing background music enhanced verbal interaction between people.

These results lead us to think that soothing background music would be more appropriate for service films. DubC, et al. (1995) looked into the effects of background music on consumers' desire to affihate with bank per-

DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC ENHANCE PERSUASIVENESS? 41 1

sonnel during a buyer-seller interaction. Very pleasant background music increased positively and significantly the desire to affiiate in the case of both low and highly arousing music. In the case of moderate arousal, however, pleasant music had no significant effect on individuals' desire to affhate with personnel. Unexpectedly, participants exposed to both unpleasant and high arousing musical excerpts tended to affhate with the bank salespeople; however, both unpleasant and low arousing musical pieces brought about a lo\\l- er desire to affiliate. Finally, very pleasant and very arousing background music enticed individuals to affiliate more than unpleasant or moderately pleasant music. This study by DubC, et al. (1995) lead us to dstinguish both con- ceptually and methodologically between two dimensions of emotions trig- gered by music, that is, pleasure and arousal.

This distinction was all the more important since most studies in the field of music therapy, which also dealt with the 'desire to affhate', did not differentiate the dimensions of pleasure and arousal in Mehrabian and Rus- sell's model (1974). They concluded that soothing music urged people to affihate more than arousing music. Soothing music is not a clear concept, since it is a combination of low arousal and high pleasure. It is then hardly possible to point out which dimension of emotion, i.e., arousal or pleasure, generates the desire to affiliate.

Model and Hypotheses In the absence of any background music, the relationship between the

salesperson's perception and the behavioral and attitudinal reactions of customers is strong. In ocher words, a salesperson perceived as honest, compe- tent, or attractive generates better attitudes toward the product to be sold than another salesperson scoring low on honesty, competence, or attractive- ness. How is this relationship affected by the presence of background music in a store?

Music may have two opposite types of effects on attention: either, it helps consumers focus their attention on the salesperson's arguments or it is a source of distraction because it attracts attention to itself. The literature review on the cognitive effects of music leads us to consider two facets of music: first, the music-induced arousal which triggers consumers' attention, and second, the interest for music which draws consumers' attention to itself.

Music may moderate the effects of the salesperson on consumers' attitude in two opposite ways: it can either enhance the persuasive effects of his speech or it can reduce them. On one hand, background music may enhance the salespersons' persuasive effects because, as predicted by the Meh- rabian and Russell model (1974), (pleasant) music-induced arousal may increase consumers' 'desire to affiliate' with the salesperson and enhance the

4 12 J-C. CHEBAT, ET AL

shoppers' attitudes and the intent to buy services. On the other hand, music may distract consumers' attention from the salesperson's arguments and, consequently, reduce the influence of these arguments, which in turn decreases the attitudes toward the service and the intent to buy.

More precisely, on one hand, following the results by Dubt, et al. (1995), we hypothesize that the more arousing the background (pleasant), the more persuasive the salesperson. On the other hand, following the results by Chebat, et al. (1993), we hypothesize that the more interesting the background music, the more it reduces the persuasive effects of the salesperson because it attracts consumers' attention to itself and reduces the attention to other cues.

Consequently, we proposed two sets of hypotheses. The first set of hypotheses is related to the effects of the arousing dimension of music; the second is related to the interesting dimension of music. In both sets of hypotheses, we are interested in the effects of the consumers' perception of the salesperson on their attitudinal and behavioral responses. The perception of the salesperson is operationalized as a combination of three factorial dunensions of the perception (Energetic, Reach Out and Reactive), as shown below in the methodological section.

HI: The more arousing the music, the greater the effects of the perception of the salesperson on

the intent to buy : the arguments' acceptance

HI,,: the consumers' desire to affiiate with the salesperson. Hz: The more interesting the music, the lower the effects of the sales-

person on Hz,]: the intent to buy

: the arguments' acceptance H23: the consumers' desire to affhate with the salesperson.

Overview of the Study The same video simulating a service exchange between a female travel

agent and two customers of opposite sex was used under four experimental conditions, that is, no music (control group), and slow-moderate-fast tempo background music. Variations in arousal were manipulated with classical music excerpts having different tempos and affective responses. The three excerpts had the same pleasure-induced level. These were pretested for their induced arousal using the Affect Grid (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989).

Participants

A total of 593 business students (53% female) chosen among homoge-


neous groups of undergraduates in two Eastern-Canadian universities partic- ipated. Their ages varied from 19 to 25 years old. For most of them the mother tongue was French (85%). Groups of participants were exposed to one of the four experimental condtions (three tempos) with a control condition, i.e., no music conchtion.

Pretest of 7nusic excerpts.-Dubt, et al. (1995) meticulously selected some musical pieces. The procedure was as follows. Fifteen participants from the same university as those of our study (8 women and 7 men) were exposed to 54 musical excerpts that they rated in terms of both arousal and pleasure using the Affect Grid designed by Russell, et al. (1989). The Affect Grid presents a good validity and reliability and is recommended when re- peated measures are necessary (Holbrook & Gardner, 1993). This grid is made of two axes; the horizontal axis is the pleasure dimension and the ver- tical axis is the arousal dimension. This grid is a simplified version of the full length questionnaire designed by Russell and Mehrabian (1978) we used in the present study. The excerpts were classified into three equal categories of tempi, i.e., slow vs moderate vs fast. The average ratings on the arousal dimension were 2.6, 5.4, and 8.0, respectively, for low, moderate, and high arousal (F,,,, =52.88, p < .001). Since familiarity with music has been shown to influence kg, three scales measured familiarity. Participants' famharity with the various extracts of classical music mentioned above &d not vary significantly among experimental groups. Famharity [measured in the pretest made by Dub&, et al. (1995) with the use of one question, "How famil- iar are you with this musical piece?"] did not vary across conditions and was low (M=2.6, 2.3, 3.7; F=. l3 , ns). In addition, how much participants re- garded the musical piece as adapted to the store environment &d not vary across experimental conditions (F= .27, ns). Their assessment of the adapta- tion of the music to the store was evenly distributed (average score of 2.6 on a 7-point scale).

Three musical excerpts were selected from the original musical pieces tested by Dub&, et al. (1995): the first movement of the horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat major (K447) by Mozart; the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in F major BMV 1047, second movement, by J. S. Bach; the oboe Concerto in C major K314, third movement, by Mozart. These three musical excerpts were rated as highly pleasurable (respectively, 6.2, 7.4, and 7.6) on a 9-point scale; they were quite ddferent in terms of arousal (respectively, 2.6, 5.9, and 7.6).

Procedure The research procedure consisted of one video simulating as realistically

as possible the interaction between a travel agent and two clients. The three characters were played by professional actors. Two of them perform the role of a couple visiting a travel agency to get information about a trip and possi-


bly purchase it. The third character was a travel agent s e h g them a trip outside Canada. The video showing the experimental conditions was taped under the directorship of a f i professor at an eastern Canadian university who was assisted by cameraman and lighting students from the Communica- tions Department at the same university. The scripts were written by the research team and subsequently revised by a theater professor. The video had different selected musical extracts as sound background: either no music or one of the three musical extracts described above.

The participants were instructed to imagine that they were sitting be- fore the travel agent. Such a method has been widely used in the field of service research (Baker, Levy, & Grewal, 1992; Chebat, et al., 1993; Chebat, et al., 1996) and validated experimentally by Bateson and Hui (1992). After watching the videos, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire.

Measures

Perception of the salesperson.-Thirty-eight 7-point items (1 =not at all and 7 =extremely) developed by Edell and Burke (1987) were used to reflect the reactions of participants toward the employee: their principal cornpo- nents factor analysis showed three factors that they call Upbeat, Negative feehgs, and Warm feehgs, which express the reactions toward the adver- tisements. We reasoned that this list of scales could reflect as well consumers' reactions toward salespersons. Our own principal components factor analysis with Oblimin rotation also shows three factors we c d Energetic (eigenvalue = 6.38; Cronbach alpha = .79), Reactive (eigenvalue = 3.07; Cron- bach alpha = .71), and Reach Out (eigenvalue = 1.61; Cronbach alpha = .67).

Our first factor is composed of scales such as enthusiastic, stimulated, attractive, and amused which are included in Edell and Burke's (1987) Up- beat factor. The second factor is composed of scales such as angry, critical, depressed, insulted, irritated, and suspicious found in Edell and Burke's second factor, Negative Feelings. Our third factor is composed of only three scales, calm, sentimental, and warm, which reflect Edell and Burke's Warm Feelings factor.

Music-induced arousal.-Participants were instructed to indicate how they felt after being exposed to the music accompanying the video. The music-induced arousal construct was measured by a scale developed by Mehra- bian and Russell (1974) which is made of six 7-point bipolar items (stirnulat- ed-relaxed; excited-calm; awake-not awake. . .). A principal component factor analysis shows one single factor (Cronbach alpha=.84). As expected from the pretest, music-induced arousal factor scores vary significantly with the music manipulation (F=7.61, p=.O01). The higher the tempo the higher the arousal (-3, 0 and 2.0, respectively, for the three musical excerpts). A principal component with Oblvnin rotation factor analysis was performed


on the arousal scales; it shows one factor. The factor-score distribution was split into three approximately equal groups (low-moderate-h~gh music-induced arousal).

Music interest.-Participants were instructed to indicate how interesting they felt that the background music was, in the sense that it deserved their attention. Interest for the music is a construct different from that of music-induced pleasure as this construct reflects the curiosity for a piece of music, how much it attracts attention to itself (Madsen, 1970). It is measured by three 7-point bipolar items (irnaginative-not imaginative; interesting-not interesting; attracts attention-does not attract attention). A global score of music interest was computed. A factor analysis (principal components with Oblimin rotation), performed on the three interest for music scales, gave one factor. The distribution of this score was trichotomized in approximately three equal groups of participants, i.e., low, moderate, and high interest for the music.

Arguments acceptance.-Participants were instructed to rate the quality of arguments proposed by the travel agent. The perceived quality of the arguments was measured on three 7-point differential semantic scales composed of those three pairs of antonyms: nonconvincing-convincing, ill thought- well thought, and uninteresting-interesting. Only one factor emerged, which accounted for 78% of the variance. The Cronbach alpha is .86.

Buying intent.-Buying intent was assessed by two questions: Would you come back to this agency to get more information? (7-point scale; not at all and cer tady) and Would you wish to purchase a travel service from that person? (7-point scale; not at all and very much). The Cronbach alpha of the scale was .63.

Des2re to affiliate.-Following Russell and Mehrabian (1 97 8), attitudinal and behavioral measures of participants' desire to affhate with the travel agency employee were measured. Attitudinal items were how friendly participants felt toward and how much they U e d the travel agency employee (7- point scale; not at all and very much). The three behavioral measures were smile, say hello, and chat with the employee (7-point scale; very u n k e l y and very likely). The Cronbach alpha for the scale was .55.

Ecological Validity of the Stimuli

Ecological validity was assessed by four 7-point Likert scales (Cronbach alpha= .80) on which participants had to express their agreement with state- ments such as this video reflects the reahty, is similar to personal experi- ences, is realistic, and gives the impression of being in a travel agency. A series of analyses of variance showed that the ratings of realism measured by these four scales did not vary across experimental conditions (all ps ns).


Statistical Procedure

A series of canonical regressions were performed. In all cases, the independent variables were the three factors of the salesperson's perception, i.e., Energetic, Reactive and Reach Out. The dependent variables were, respectively, in each of the canonical regressions performed: the intent to buy (H,,, and the arguments' acceptance (H1.2 and H2.21, and the desire to affhate and H2.3).

One canonical regression, e.g., with the 'desire to affhate' as the dependent measure, was performed for each of the three levels of music-induced arousal, i.e., low, moderate and high, and for the three levels of music-induced interest, i.e., low, moderate and high. Moreover, for the control group, similar canonical regressions were also performed.

RESULTS Tables 1 to 3 show the moderating effects of music-induced arousal on

the relation between the salesperson's perception and her persuasiveness. Tables 4 to 6 show the moderating effects of the interest of music on the same relation.

HI,, : The more arousing the music, the higher the effects of the perception of the salesperson on the intent to buy; see Table 1.

TABLE 1 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS H1.1: MODERATING EFFECTS OF MUSIC-INDUCED AROUSAL O F

T H E REIATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S P E R C E P ~ O N A N D INTENT TO B&

Measure Independent Variable Energetic Reactive Reach Out

No Music (Control) ( n = 2 3 3 ) F P W

Low Arousing Music (n = 109) F P 0

Moderately Arousing h.lus~c (12 = 144) F P W

Highly Arousing Music (11 = 107) F P 0

*All d f=3; Wilk lambda score is used.

Only one of the three dimensions of salespersons' perception, i.e., Reach Out, is associated with the intent to buy. In the absence of music and in the presence of music, whatever the music-induced arousal, the pattern is the same. The power of the relation does not vary significantly (from .9 to

DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC ENHANCE PERSUASIVENESS?

1.0). Music does not moderate the relation between salespersons' perception and the intent to buy; HI,, is rejected.

HI,*: The more arousing the music, the higher the effects of the perception of the salesperson on the acceptance of arguments; see Table 2.

TABLE 2 T m OF HYPOTHESIS H1.2: MODERATING EFFECTS OF MUSIC-INDUCED AROUSAL OF

THE RELATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S PERCEPTION AND ARGUMENT'S ACCEPTANCE.

Measure - Independent Variable Enerpeuc Reactive Reach Out

No Music (Control) (n =233) F 5 1 2.65 1.22

P W

Low Arousing Music (n= 109) F P W

moderately Arousing Music in = 144) F P W

Highly Arousing Music (n = 107) F P 0

"All d/=3; Wilk lambda score is used.

In the absence of music, only the Reactive dimension of the salesperson negatively affects the acceptance of the sales arguments; see Table 2: all ps < -.14. The picture is ddferent in the presence of music: both low and high arousing music canceled the relation between the perception of the salesper-

TABLE 3 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS H1.3: MoDEIZATING EFFECTS OF MUSIC-INDUCED AROUSAL OF

THE RELATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S PERCEPTION AND CONSUMERS DESIRE TO AFFILIATE*

Measure Independent Variable Enerneuc Reactive Reach Out

No Music (Control) (n=233) F P 0

Low Arousing Music (n = 109) F P W

Moderately Arousing Music (11 = 144) F P W

Highly Arousing Music in = 107) F P W

*All df= 3; Wilk lambda score is used.


son and the acceptance of arguments; but the negative effects of reactive salespersons on the acceptance of arguments were maintained under moderately arousing music (p = -.25). Under moderately arousing music and only under that condition, the Reach Out dimension is significantly associated with acceptance of arguments (F,,,,,=23.36, p < ,001; w = 1.00; all ns).

The more arousing the music, the higher the effects of the perception of the salesperson on the consumers' desire to affhate with the salesperson; see Table 3.

Under no music condition did perception of the salesperson influence the consumers' desire to affiliate; however, the higher the score on Reach Out, the higher the desire to affdiate under low arousing music (P=0.26) and under moderate arousing music (P =0.22).

The more interesting the music, the lower the effects of the salesperson on the intent to buy; see Table 4.

TABLE 4 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS H2.1: MODERATING EFFECTS OF MUSIC [NTEREST ON THE

RELATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S PERCEPTION A N D I N T E ~ T TO B u f


No Music (Control) 01 =230) F P W

Low Interesting Music (12 = 78) F P W

Moderately Interesting Music ( n = 167) F P 0

Xghly Interesting Music ( n = 118) F P 0

*AU df=3; Wilk lambda score is used.

The Reach Out dimension was the only one significantly influencing intent to buy across experimental conditions. Very interestingly, the relation of this dimension is curvilinear since scores vary with the interest in the music. The effects of Reach Out were the strongest when the interest for the music is moderate (fi = ,701 and lower when the interest for music is either low (P = 2 6 ) or high (P=.41). The Reactive salesperson affected the intent to buy only for participants considering the music as moderately interesting; in that case, the higher the scores on Reactive for the salesperson, the worse the intent to buy.

The more interesting the music, the lower the effects of the salesperson on the arguments acceptance; see Table 5.


TEST OF HYPOTHESIS H2.2: MODERAT~NC EFFECTS OF MUSIC INTEREST O N THE

RELATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S PERCEPTION A N D ARGUMENT'S ACCEPTANCE*


No Music (Control) (n = 230) F .98 1.55 1.17

P ns 0 .25

Low Inreresting Music ( r z = 78) F 1.00

P ns 0 .26

Moderately Interesting Music (72 = 167) F .95

P ns w .26

Highly Interesting Music ( r r = 118) F .7 1

P ns W .20

"All d f = 3 ; Wilk lambda score is used.

The higher the Reach Out score, the higher the acceptance of the arguments when the music was low (all ps> .38) or moderately (all ps> ,361 interesting, whereas there are no effects under either the no-music condition or the highly interesting music condition.

The more interesting the music, the lower the effects of the salesperson on the consumers' desire to affiliate with the salesperson; see Table 6.

Similarly, the higher the Reach Out score, the higher the participants'

TABLE 6 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS H2.3: MODERATING EFFECTS OF MUSIC INTEREST O N T H E

RELATION BETWEEN SALESPERSON'S PERCEPTION A N D CONSUMER'S DESIRE TO AFFILIATE-

Measure Independent Variable Enereetic Reactive Reach Out

~ o ~ u s i c ~ ~ o n ~ o l ) 011 230) F P 0

Low Interesting Music ( n =78) F P W

Moderately Interesting Music (n= 167) F P W

Highly Interesting Music (I?= 118) F P U

"All d f = 3; W~lk lambda score is used.


desire to affiliate under low (all ps> .23) and moderately interesting music (all ps > 20). The Energetic dimension brought out a higher verbal desire to affiiate (P= .23) and a lower nonverbal desire to affiliate (P = -.28) when the music was highly interesting.

Moderating Effects of Music-induced Arousal Effects on the intent to buy.-Music induced arousal did not moderate

the effects of the salespersons on the intent to buy. In the absence of arousing music, the effects of music-induced arousal were not significantly different from those obtained in the presence of music.

Effects on the acceptance of arguments.-Moderately arousing music did significantly influence acceptance of arguments; the effect of the salesclerk who scores high on the Reach Out dimension is very strong under that type of music (F=23.36, p< ,001) whereas it is not significant under all other conditions.

Effects on the desire to affiiliate with the salesclerk -Similarly, salesclerks who scored high on the Reach Out dimension s~gndlcantly influenced the consumers' desire to affiiate under low and moderately arousing music.

Moderating Effects of Interest in Background Music Effects on the intent to buy.-No striking significant differences could

be found among the different levels of music interest. Effects on the acceptance of arguments.-The presence of music moder-

ated the relation between the perception of the salesclerk and the acceptance of arguments. Low and moderately interesting music enhanced the effects of the Reach Out dimension (Fs=5.74 and 12.58, respectively, p < .001), whereas these effects were not significant under either no music or highly interesting music (F= 1.17 and .22, ns).

Effects on the desire to affiiliate.-The results were quite similar here. Under low or moderately interesting music, the effects of Reach Out on the desire to affiliate are significant (F= 8.25 and 5.40, respectively; p < .01) whereas they were not under both highly interesting music and no music.

Limitations and Conclusions Background music may not necessarily be a means for enhancing sales

performance since, no effects on the intent to buy have been shown here; however, music may help salesclerks significantly in two ways. Consumers may accept their arguments when music is either low or moderately arousing or low or moderately interesting, and consumers may desire to affiiate with the salespersons (in terms of both verbal and nonverbal communication) when music is either low or moderately arousing or low or moderately interesting.


In other words, music background is not a panacea for enhancing sales but helps maintain contact and attention, which is valuable for the store. We reason that music should not attract too much attention to itself; it may help create a good atmosphere for the customer-salesperson contact. As predicted from the literature on music therapy, "soothing" music does help create the contact, but music that is too arousing or too interesting distracts consumers from the salesperson and reduces the seller's persuasive effects. However, results related to the "desire to affhate" have to be considered with caution due to the low Cronbach alpha.

This study is the first to investigate the influence of music-induced arousal and music interest on acceptance of arguments by consumers in an interaction between buyer and seller. The results should be interpreted cau- tiously for many reasons. Methodological hi ta t ions are related to the choice of a student population and the use of only classical music. In addition, de-

- -

spite meticulous care in pretesting the background music and designing the film scenarios, certainly all of the subtleties of a real-world experience may not have been captured by our methodology based on video simulations. Bateson and Hui (1992), however, have shown the validity of videos for theory testing that requires environmental manipulations.

h o t h e r lirnication derives from the fact that the study does not take into account customers' char~cteristics which might have moderated the relation between the perception of the salesperson and the customers' responses. One may reason that at least two variables may have had such moderating effects, i.e., age and the so-called shoppers' values. Previous stud- - ies have shown older shoppers prefer low volume music in stores, whereas younger shoppers prefer high volume music (Yalch & Spangenberg, 1989). More importantly, shopping values as defined by Babin, Darden, and Grif- fii (1994), i.e., a combination of hedonism and uthtarianism, has been shown to moderate the effects of store atmosphere strongly on shoppers' emotions and perceptions.

Additional limitations concern the focus on buyer-seller interactions in a travel agency. Even though we believe that role expectations in this exchange are in ways comparable with other sales transactions, parts of the interactive process differ. Replications should be done with other types of buyer-seller interactions. Researchers should also investigate the salesperson's responses to these background music manipulations as well as their effects on the interactive process. Despite these Imitations, our findings provide a use- ful first step in developing a theoretical understanding of how music can influence acceptance of arguments of consumers in buyer-seller interaction. For practitioners, this should provide insight on how to design environments that optimize the effectiveness of buyer-seller interactions.


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Accepted Jzrly 24, 2000

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DOES BACKGROUND MUSIC IN A STORE ENHANCE SALESPERSONS' PERSUASIVENESS?

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