1
Effects of Mortality Salience on Musical
Perception –
The Complex made Simple
Henning Brand
Universität Koblenz-Landau
FB 8 Psychologie
Im Fort 7
76829 Landau
Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
Ute Hoffmann
Universität Bielefeld
e-mail:[email protected]
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ABSTRACT
The authors inquired the impact of mortality salience on
perceived complexity of music. In social psychology, terror
management theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986)
conceives fear of death as a motivational force driving humans
towards an increased adherence to ingroup values, which are in
turn described as the person´s cultural worldview. In contrast
to this position, the authors suggest that imposed threat does
not affect the ascription of cultural value but leads to a
perceptual reduction of complex information to simple, clear
cut positions. Hence complex music presented under threatening
conditions should be perceived as simple and unambiguous.
Participants in threatening versus comforting situations were
exposed to either ambiguous or unambiguous musical stimuli of
high versus low assigned cultural value. Though under threat,
TMT predicts a preference for "cultural values", it was
hypothesized here that threat causes a preference for
unambiguous music. There was no evidence for a preference for
cultural values. Furthermore, striving for unambiguity rather
than for cultural values seems to be an active process: In the
mortality salience condition both unambiguous and ambiguous
music was rated as more unambiguous, more structured, and more
uniform than it was rated in a comforting condition.
3
At the outset of the investigation presented here, there
was the authors’ interest in terror management theory
(subsequently refered to as TMT), an approach in social
psychology investigating consequences of threatening situations
to behavior. And there was an experience by one of the authors
visiting a group therapy with patients suffering from stress.
One of them worked as a guard in prison and was confronted with
everyday violence and hence extremely stressful situations. It
happened, that the man became aggressive and hostile listening
to Bach’s suite in d-minor for violin. Thus, the initial idea
for further investigation was that apparently peaceful and
calming music can render extreme to overt aggressive reactions
if heard under stress. Starting from the perspective of TMT, an
experimental approach at music perception under threat is
presented in the following.
In TMT(Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski & Lyon,
1989), it is hypothesized that the most basic of all human
motives is eternal life. If people are reminded of their own
mortality, they need a mechanism to repress the fear of death
into unconsciousness. Human beings need assurance that there is
such a thing as relative stability to protect them from terror.
Based on this assumption, TMT postulates that individual
versions of a cultural worldview serve an anxiety-buffering
function. Cultural worldviews, as symbolic means of self-
preservation (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, & Hamilton,
1990), can guarantee meaning, order, and stability in a largely
4
uncontrollable universe. If people adhere to the cultural
standards of their own culture, thereby believing to be a
valuable participant of that culture, they gain a feeling of
symbolic immortality. As the individuals are part of their
culture, they are promised immortality if they live up to meet
the cultural standards.
Prejudice and hostility toward people who violate
permanent and concrete social norms are explained by means of a
cultural anxiety-buffer which is set into function exclusively
by fear of death (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, Simon, &
Breus, 1994). As TMT states, fear of death should have its most
powerful impact on a pre-conscious level. It is hypothesized
"that the problem of death may exert its effect primarily when
it is on the fringes of consciousness; that is, when it is
highly accessible but outside of current focal attention or
working memory" (Pyszczynski, Greenberg & Solomon, 1997, p. 4).
A standard design in TMT - research involves a more or
less fictitious target person -- a prostitute or a criminal --
whose behavior is at odds with moral standards or ingroup
values. A treatment is devised during which the experimental
group is exposed to death related stimuli, a threatening
situation, as for example being confronted with one´s own
mortality by filling out a questionnaire on what it would be
like to die. The control group is given a neutral or even
comforting treatment. Both groups are asked to judge the target
5
person´s behavior, as for example by defining an appropriate
penalty for the prostitute or the criminal. It is usually found
that under mortality salience judgements are more rigorous and
harsher. This is explained by increased adherence to one´s
cultural worldview as a means of repressing anxiety out of
consciousness.
The Definition of Culture Within TMT
Culture is defined as "a shared conception of reality that
imbues life with meaning, order, and permanence, and the
promise of safety and death transcendence to those who meet the
prescribed standards of value" (Greenberg, Solomon, &
Pyszczynski, 1997, p. 71). It becomes clear that the concept of
culture given by TMT is a functional one. Culture serves to
reduce anxiety. But otherwise, there is no conceptual
definition of culture involved, which is a striking fact given
that everyday understanding of culture seems to refer to
achievements, particular works of art, i.e. some actual
contents to be of cultural value.
Cultural criticism, e.g. the critical theory put forward
by Adorno (1972a), had an obvious tendency to disconnect
cultural values from the instrumental idea that they have to
serve for any purpose beyond themselves: Culture exists "in
contrast to everything that serves the reproduction of material
life ... the self-maintenance of human beings, the preservation
of their existence" (Adorno, 1972a, p. 123 [translation by the
6
authors]). The source of cultural achievements, as for example
works of art, is seen in the "subject´s opposition against the
empirical reality" (Adorno, 1970, p. 104 [translation by the
authors]). It follows that an artist capable of cultural
achievements should resist subscribing increasingly to ingroup
values. On the other hand, putting a prostitute into prison
hardly seems to be a matter of "cultural value".
What does culture or the individual´s version of a
cultural worldview within TMT really mean? Are ingroup-
favoritism and outgroup-discrimination to be identified with
culture? Wicklund (1997) outlines some problems with the
cultural concepts of TMT. He argues that the
operationalizations of the cultural worldview concept converge
with the verbalizations of the authoritarian personality, as
operationalized by the California F-Scale (Adorno, Frenkel-
Brunswick, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950). The authoritarian
personality suffers from status-anxiety and thus responds in
the same way as individuals who are aware of their own
mortality. Both the authoritarian personality and the
individual who thinks of death behave in the same unambiguous
way: They disparage outgroups and subscribe increasingly to in-
group values as the only valid ones. In a similar vein,
Hoffmann (1997a,b) suggests that culture within the terror
management perspective can be replaced by a wish for clear and
concrete positions. If individuals are threatened, they seek
security. Security is provided by means of unambiguity. It
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would seem that in TMT, a preference for clear-cut positions
and the subjective definition of culture are confounded.
Let´s have another look at the prejudiced, authoritarian
personality. Adorno (1972b) states that "prejudiced persons
generally display belief in conventional values instead of
making moral decisions of their own ... . Through
identification, they too tend to submit to a group ego at the
expense of their own ego ideal which becomes virtually merged
with external values" (p. 416). As outlined above, the
conception of culture in Adorno´s own theorizing implies that a
person capable of cultural achievements should be less
susceptible for group pressure, whereas the authoritarian
personality particularly responds to external values. It
follows that the authoritarian personality is relatively
incapable of cultural achievements, and instead, rather works
against such cultural values than appreciating them.
Considering these theoretical problems in TMT, the
existing operationalizations of the cultural worldview are
misleading. Accordingly, the basic idea of our experimental
approach to this theoretical framework is to disconnect
"culture" and "unambiguity". We hypothesize that participants
exposed to terror prefer unambiguous stimuli, no matter if
there is a connection to culture or not.
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Applying the Theory to Musical Perception
From what is said so far, music in threatening situations
may either be perceived in terms of cultural value, as
suggested by TMT, or reduced in perceived complexity, as is
suggested by the alternative perspective suggested by the
authors. Quite happily, musical material can be manipulated
experimentally with regard to the ambiguity vs. unambiguity of
its structure. Furthermore, musical material is easily
connected with culture and should therefore allow to assign
"high" vs. "low" cultural value to a given musical stimulus.
A Study on Musical Perception
Overview
Whereas under mortality salience, TMT would predict a
preference for "cultural values", it is hypothesized here that
general threat -- of which mortality salience constitutes only
a specific instance -- will result in a preference for
unambiguity. Two different predictions are conceivable: (a) TMT
would predict that those reminded of their own mortality, if
compared with participants in a comforting condition, would
prefer music of ascribed cultural value to music culturally
unimportant, regardless of whether ambiguous or unambiguous
musical stimuli are presented. Alternatively, (b) if the
assumption is correct that thinking about mortality causes
anxiety and the person can find security within concrete and
clear positions, it would not matter whether the musical
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material is connected with culture. The individual would prefer
in any case unambiguous stimuli. In order to test the terror
management prediction against the prediction that mortality
salience leads to a preference for unambiguous music,
participants were assigned to conditions in a 2 x 2 x 2
(Mortality Salience, Culture, Unambiguity) factorial design.
Mortality salience . In the present study mortality
salience was operationalized by an open-ended questionnaire
about death. Control participants filled out a questionnaire
about winning a prize in the lottery.
Culture . TMT states that if mortality is made salient,
cultural conceptions of reality provide a context for
repressing the fear of death into unconsciousness. In this
context the person should prefer cultural conceptions of
reality, thereby gaining a feeling of immortality.
Culture was manipulated by informing half of the
participants that the music had been written by a famous
composer who already wrote outstanding piano works, as well as
electronic music. This information should connect music with
meaning, value, and importance, which are qualities indicating
culture in terms of TMT. The other half of the participants
were informed that they were going to hear a hobby musicians
work. Music written by a hobby musician should have no cultural
value. It should be perceived as unfamous and unimportant.
TMT would predict that participants in the Mortality
Salience condition should prefer music written by a famous
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composer. By contrast, according to the proposed alternative
view, if threat leads to a preference of unambiguous stimuli,
participants in the Mortality Salience condition should prefer
unambiguous music more than ambiguous music. Contrary to the
predictions of TMT, culture should have no influence on the
dependent measures.
Unambiguity of music . One way to define unambiguous and
ambiguous music is to differentiate music according to
structural features. Mikol (1960) defines music as conventional
if it has a clearly defined melody, a harmonic structure, and a
low degree of rhythmic complexity. That kind of music should be
perceived as unambiguous. Ambiguous music or "new system
music", as Mikol names it, is at odds with traditional music,
in that it departs from a harmonic structure and uses a high
degree of rhythmic complexity. Unambiguous music hence
satisfies expectations guided by cognitive schemes. Thus, to
provide unambiguous music, one of the authors constructed and
recorded an eight bar piano piece having a plain melody,
harmonic structure and straight rhythm that was repeated during
the experiment. In the ambiguous condition, a piano piece was
recorded that had neither a clear melody, nor conceivable
harmonic and rythmical structure and contained no repetitions.
Method
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Participants and Laboratory Arrangements
The participants were 27 male and 53 female students of
different faculties from the University of Bielefeld, recruited
in the main hall of the building. The median age was 24 years.
The students were asked to participate in an experiment about
musical perception. Psychology students received experimental
credits; students of other faculties received five German marks
for their participation.
While participating in the study, participants sat at a
table in an experimental cubicle. On the table was a tape
recorder and a questionnaire with the heading "Experiment on
Musical Perception".
Procedure
When the participant entered the laboratory, he or she was
sat at a table and began filling out the questionnaire. The
experiment was described as an investigation of the influence
of music on the ability to concentrate. The participant first
gave information about sex, age, and field of study. Then, in
the Mortality Salience condition, a "death"-questionnaire was
presented. This questionnaire consisted of two open questions:
(a) People in Europe live 75 years on average. Do you
think that you too will reach this age? How many years
will you still live?
(b) What should happen to your corpse?
In the Lottery condition, we asked participants:
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(a) Imagine that you have won in the lottery. What would
you do with the money?
(b) Which amount of money would be desirable?
Depending in which condition the participant was, at the
end of both questionnaires we asked participants the following
questions in parallel form: "How do you feel while thinking of
your own death?" and "How do you feel while thinking of a prize
in a lottery?", respectively. A brief bipolar mood checklist
was presented for both. The ratings were made on bipolar 7-
point scales, the end points being items on the checklist
"comfortable vs. uncomfortable", "anxious vs. free of anxiety",
"relaxed vs. tense" and "good vs. bad".
Then, participants got the information that they would
hear music while working on mathematics tasks. Half of the
participants read the information that the music they were
going to hear was written by a famous composer, who already
wrote outstanding piano works as well as electronic music. The
other half read that the music was a hobby musician´s work. It
was thus implied, that a hobby musician´s work was of no
particular value.
TMT postulates that mortality salience exerts its effect
when it is on the fringes of consciousness (Greenberg,
Pyszczynski, Solomon, Simon, & Breus, 1994; Pyszczynski,
Greenberg, & Solomon, 1997). Mortality should be highly
accessible but outside of current focal attention. Greenberg et
al. (1997) suggest that a delay and distraction from the
13
thoughts of death may therefore facilitate the effects of
terror management. For this reason, participants judged music
while working on mathematics tasks in order to distract
mortality salience participants from the problem of death.
While participants were adding digits in rows of five
elements, they simultaneously heard either unambiguous or
ambiguous music. The unambiguous music contained a
straightforward eight bar formal structure with clearly defined
melody and harmonic progression. This eight bar structure was
repeated throughout the presentation of the piece. Music in the
ambiguous condition had neither melody nor harmonic or formal
structure. It was thus not in correspondence with the standards
used by Mikol (1960) to describe "conventional" music.
Manipulation Checks
Manipulation Checks consisted of six adjectives presented
on a 7-point bipolar rating scale, in sense of reflecting the
degree to which the ambiguous musical piece was really
perceived to be ambiguous. The items read:
ambiguous versus unambiguous
without structure versus well structured
complex versus simple
confused versus clear
without rhythm versus rhythmical
Dependent Measures
Music preferences were operationalized by items measuring
the perceived quality of music, how much the participant felt
14
distracted by music, and the influence of music while working
on a mathematics tasks.
Quality of music . The subjective quality of music was
assessed by the question: "How did you enjoy the music?"
measuring by means of a 7-point rating scale with end points
being very well and not at all. Another measure of the
subjective quality consisted of a list of six 7-point bipolar
adjectives:
amateurish versus professional
aggressive versus comforting
melancholic versus cheerful
bad versus good
unpleasant versus pleasant
boring versus interesting
It was expected that mortality salience would lead to a
higher evaluation of unambiguous music.
Disturbed by music . The degree to which the music was
rated as positive should also be reflected by the degree to
which participants felt disturbed by music. The item "Did you
feel disturbed by music" was rated on a 7-point scale ranging
from "absolutely not disturbed" to "very much disturbed". It
was hypothesized that threatened participants would feel less
disturbed by unambiguous music.
Influence of music on the mathematics tasks . Participants
answered the question: "What influence did the music have on
your performance on the mathematics tasks?" with the
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alternatives: very negative influence, negative influence, no
influence, positive influence, and very positive influence. In
the Mortality salience condition ambiguous music should have a
more negative influence on the performance of the mathematics
task than unambiguous music.
After the questionnaire had been completed, participants
were debriefed, thanked for their participation, and given the
experimental credit or the monetary reward.
Results
Manipulation Checks
Threat . Participants rated their mood on four bipolar 7-
point scales (comfortable vs. uncomfortable, anxious vs. free
of anxiety, good vs. bad, relaxed vs. unrelaxed). Mortality
Salience caused more discomfort than imagining a prize in a
lottery, t (76) = 6.70, p < .00011. Participants in the
Mortality salience condition reported feeling more anxious than
Lottery participants, t (76)= 2.43, p < .02, and threatend
participants felt worse than participants in the Lottery
condition, t (75)= 7.34, p < .0001. Analysis of ratings how
"relaxed vs unrelaxed" participants felt showed no effects
approaching significance, p > .10.
Unambiguity . All items indicating unambiguity proved to be
highly significant. Music with a clearly defined melody was
rated as more unambiguous, t (78)= 3.25, p < .005, had more
structure, t (78)= 4.46, p < .0001, was more homogeneous, t (78)=
16
5.20, p < .0001, was rated to be simpler, t (78)= 6.25, p <
.0001, was clearer t (78)= 5.29, p < .001, and had more rhythm,
t (78)= 4.24, p < .0001, than music lacking a formal structure.
Dependent Measures
The dependent measures consisted of seven items concerning
the quality of music, the perceived disturbance of music, and
the influence of music on the mathematics tasks. It was
hypothesized that threat induced as mortality salience would
cause a higher evaluation of unambiguous music: Threatened
participants should ascribe a higher degree of quality to
unambiguous music. They should be less disturbed by unambiguous
music and unambiguous music should have a less perceived
negative influence on performing mathematics tasks than
unambiguous music. A connection to culture should have no
influence on the dependent measures2.
Quality index . The quality of the music was assessed by
the question "How did you enjoy the music" and six bipolar
items (e.g.: amateurish vs. professional, boring vs.
interesting). A reliability analysis of the seven measures
indicating quality revealed a Cronbach´s alpha of .85. These
items were summed and then averaged so that a high score
indicated positive evaluation of music. Thus, an overall
quality index was obtained.
TMT would predict an interaction between mortality
salience and culture. Participants in the mortality salience
condition should evaluate culturally important music more
17
positive than participants in the lottery condition. As
anticipated, and in contrast to the assumptions of TMT, culture
had no influence on the perceived quality of music. An analysis
of variance yielded no significant interaction between threat
and culture, p > .10. This finding contradicts the terror
management hypothesis that mortality salience participants
respond positively toward cultural values.
Unexpectedly, there was no interaction between mortality
salience and unambiguity. An analysis of variance revealed only
one main effect, indicating that participants liked unambiguous
music ( M = 4.70) more than ambiguous music ( M = 4.06), F (1,72)=
6.03, p < .02.
Disturbed by music . The item "Did you feel disturbed by
music" was rated on a 7-point scale (1= absolutely not
disturbed, 7= very much disturbed). As hypothesized, culture
had no influence on the perceived disturbance of music. Neither
the factor culture nor the two-way interaction (Mortality
Salience x Culture) yielded significant results, all ps > .10.
An analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect
for the factor Unambiguity, F (1,72)= 6.73, p < .02. Ambiguous
music was rated as more disturbing ( M = 5.53) than unambiguous
music ( M = 4.43). There was also a significant two-way
interaction (Mortality Salience x Unambiguity), F (1,72)= 6.79,
p < .02:
It was hypothesized that participants in the mortality
salience condition should rate ambiguous music to be more
18
disturbing than unambiguous music. Surprisingly, in the lottery
condition participants reported being more disturbed by
ambiguous music ( M = 6.30) than by unambiguous music ( M = 3.81),
t (39), p < .01 (see Table 1). In the Mortality salience
condition there were no significant differences between
ambiguous and unambiguous music, p > .10.
-------------------------
Insert Table 1 about here
-------------------------
Influence of music on the mathematics tasks . The item
"What influence did the music have on your performance on the
mathematics tasks?" was rated on a 5-point scale (1= very
negative influence, 5= very positive influence). An analysis of
variance revealed a significant main effect for the factor
unambiguity, F (1,72)= 8.86, p < .005. Unambiguous music had a
more positive influence ( M = 2.70) than ambiguous music ( M =
2.20). No two-way or three-way interactions reached statistical
significance, ps > .10.
Interpreting the results . An analysis of the dependent
measures quality index, perceived disturbance of music, and
influence of music on the mathematics tasks revealed no
evidence that participants in the mortality salience condition
prefer culturally important music more than the hobby
musician´s work. Besides, there was no hint for a preference
for unambiguous music as a reaction to threat.
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It was implicitly suggested that in threatening conditions
only unambiguous stimuli are preferred. But, on the other hand,
if striving for unambiguity is an active process, participants
should perceive music in general as more unambiguous -- no
matter whether the music actually had an univocal, harmonical
formal structure or not. Even if unequivocal positions are not
available, the person should persuade himself/herself imagining
disharmonic and ambiguous music as unambiguous. If both --
unambiguous and ambiguous music -- is perceived as unambiguous,
there should be no differences in the perceived quality,
disturbance, and influence of music depending on threat.
Simultaneously, threat should result in a more unambiguous
perception of music.
Further analysis: perceived ambiguity . An ambiguity scale
consisting of six bipolar items was used for a manipulation
check (see Table 2). As already presented, music with a clearly
defined melody was rated as more unambiguous than music which
lacked a formal structure. An interesting result was that
threat produced differences in participants´ responses on items
measuring ambiguity.
A reliability analysis of the six measures indicating
unambiguity (see Table 2) revealed a Cronbach´s alpha of .85.
These items were summed and then averaged so that a high score
indicated unambiguity. Participants in the Mortality salience
condition perceived the music as more unambiguous ( M = 4.65)
20
than participants in the Lottery condition ( M = 4.15), t (78) =
1.74, p < .10.
An analysis of the six items, considered separately, shows
that participants in the Mortality salience condition perceived
the music as more unambiguous, more structured, and more
uniform, all p s < .05.
-------------------------
Insert Table 2 about here
-------------------------
Although differences between the mortality salience and
the lottery condition on the items complex vs. simple, confused
vs. clear, without rhythm vs. rhythmical were not significant,
the means go in the same direction. Threat seems to produce a
tendency to perceive music as more unambiguous than a
conforting condition.
Discussion
It was hypothesized that threat -- operationalized by
open-ended questions about death -- would cause a need for an
unambiguous position. Unambiguity/ambiguity was manipulated by
the presentation of music. Music either contained a
straightforward eight bar formal structure with a clearly
defined melody and harmonic progression or had neither melody,
harmonic nor formal structure. Participants in the mortality
salience condition should have preferred unambiguous music more
21
than ambiguous music compared to participants in a comforting
condition (lottery). The preference of music was measured by a
quality index, the perceived disturbance of music, and the
influence of music on a mathematical task. In contrast to a
wish for unambiguity under threat, TMT predicts that
participants should respond positively toward music connected
with culture.
Inconsistent with TMT, there was no evidence that
participants under mortality salience preferred culturally
important music to music with not associated with culture.
Besides, preference for unambiguous stimuli seems an
active process. Participants´ perception of music as ambiguous
or unambiguous was influenced by threat. Participants under
threat perceived music as more unambiguous, no matter whether
the music actually had an univocal harmonic formal structure or
not. If protection from anxiety requires a feeling of security
within clear and unambiguous positions, even if these
unequivocal positions are not available, persons persuade
themselves imagining disharmonic, unconventional music, and
ambiguous music as unambiguous. Although participants in the
mortality salience condition heard either unambiguous or
ambiguous music they perceived all music as unambiguous, well
structured, and uniform(see Table 2).
Further, the results indicate that unambiguous music is
rated more positively than ambiguous music. Participants
reported being less disturbed by unambiguous music, and
22
unambiguous music had a more positive influence on the
mathematics tasks. Therefore, unambiguous music seems to be
preferred in general. In the lottery condition participants
reported being more disturbed by ambiguous music than by
unambiguous music. But no differences yielded significance in
the mortality salience condition. If the assumption is correct
that mortality salience leads to a creation of unambiguity, all
music is perceived as unambiguous and therefore, regarding
participants´ feelings of being disturbed by music, there
should be no differences between unambiguous and ambiguous
music.
Whereas TMT predicts a preference for "cultural values"
under mortality salience, the results tend in the direction
that threat causes a need for unambiguity.
So what about the aggressive man reported in the beginning
of this inquiry? It may be that ambiguous musical stimuli
provoke aggression if a situation is created in which the music
is inescapably present (loud enough to focus attention,
difficult or impossible to turn out). Possibly, there are such
features of the situation that account for aggression provoked
by seemingly “harmless” music. On the other hand, there could
be factors within the person, be it a dispositional “open vs
closed mindedness” or acute stress, having impact on aggressive
behavior. Here lies a perspective for future research.
23
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Footnotes
1. This analysis involved only 78 participants because two
participants did not state how comfortable vs. uncomfortable
they feel. Two participants gave no information about feeling
anxious and three participants did not rate the scale "relaxed
vs. unrelaxed". All subsequent analyses are two-tailed.
2. Initial analyses were conducted including sex as a factor.
Sex did not interact with Mortality Salience and Culture on any
of the dependent measures. Though female participants evaluated
unambiguous music higher (quality index) than ambiguous music,
sex did not interact with Unambiguity on the participants´
feeling disturbed by the music and the influence of music on
mathematics tasks. Sex was not included in the final analyses.
27
Table 1
Did you Feel Distracted by Music?
Unambiguous Music Ambiguous Music
Mortality Salience
M
SD
4.74 (19)
2.25
4.75 (20)
2.40
Lottery
M
SD
3.81 (21)
1.86
6.30 (20)
2.64
Note . The higher the mean, the higher the perceived distraction
(range = 1 to 9). The number of participants in each condition
is given in parentheses.
28
Table 2
Perceived Unambiguity in the Lottery and Mortality Salience
Condition
Lottery
( n = 41)
Mortality Salience
( n = 39)
Ambiguous --
Unambiguous
3.41* 4.13*
Without Structure -
- Well Structured
4.49** 5.41**
Varied -- Uniform 3.83* 4.54*
Complex -- Simple 4.00 4.18
Confused -- Clear 3.98 4.41
Without Rhythm --
Rhythmical
5.17 5.23
Note . The higher the mean, the more is the music perceived as
unambiguous, well structured, uniform, simple, clear, and
rhythmical (range = 1 to 7). * p < .05, ** p < .01.