Music and consumer behaviour.
This chapter opens with a brief account of three meta analyses of studies of the effects of background music, one of which looks specifically at its effects in retail settings. It next outlines the main theoretical explanations of these effects, namely the effects of music on physiological arousal, on the priming of certain thoughts and associations, and on its influence through its emotional effects. It also considers a fourth mechanism identified in some of the authors' own recent research on the effects of the listener's degree of dominance and control over the music. The remainder of the chapter is a brief review, largely based on the authors' own work, of three main areas of research on music and consumer behavior, namely that on the perception of the commercial environment, on product choice and musical fit, and on the speed of activity and time perception.