MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text

Top of CT
The Influence of Music
Tempo and Musical
Preference on Restaurant
Patrons’ Behavior
Clare Caldwell and Sally A. Hibbert
University of Strathclyde

ABSTRACT

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and
musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The
research investigates the extent to which these two variables
influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of
money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience
and future behavioral intentions. The results show that music
preference provided a better explanation of actual time spent dining
than tempo, although neither variable had a significant effect on
perceived time. Time spent in the restaurant was the most powerful
predictor of money spent in the restaurant. Finally, the outcomes of
the restaurant encounter were found to be significantly related to
musical preference, but the effects of music tempo were
nonsignificant. 䉷 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

There is growing interest amongst service providers in the use of at-

mospherics as a means of enhancing the appeal of service environments
and influencing consumer behavior in service settings. Academic inter-
est in this area has grown following Kotler’s (1973) article emphasizing
the importance of atmospherics in the field of marketing, and more so
since the Donovan and Rossiter (1982) application of the Mehrabian and
Russell (1974) model of environmental psychology to the retail context. Base of text
Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 19(11): 895–917 (November 2002)
Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com)
䉷 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/mar.10043
895 Base of DF
MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
The influence of atmospherics in marketing contexts is based on the Base of text
premise that the design of an environment through a variety of means —
including lighting, layout, sounds, colors, and temperature — could
stimulate perceptual and emotional responses in consumers and affect
their behavior (Kotler, 1973). Tai and Fung (1997) distinguish two main
streams of literature that have emerged within the body of literature
on atmospherics in service settings. On one hand are those studies that
treat the service atmosphere as a holistic concept, focusing on the com-
bined effects of elements of the environment on consumer behavior
(McGoldrick & Pieros, 1995; Donovan et al., 1994). On the other hand
are studies that focus on specific atmospheric elements such as color
(Bellizzi, Crowley, & Hasty, 1983), lighting (Areni & Kim, 1994), scent
(Gulas & Bloch, 1995), and music (Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990; 1993;
Milliman, 1982; 1986).
This article focuses on music as an element of the service environ-
ment. Understanding of the effects of music is particularly useful to
service managers, as this element of the environment is relatively in-
expensive and easy to control. The influence of music on consumer be-
havior within service environments has been studied by a variety of
scholars (North & Hargreaves, 1996a; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990; Mil-
liman, 1982; 1986). Among the existing literature there are studies that
consider the influence of different types of music on consumers (Areni
& Kim, 1993), the presence versus absence of music (Park & Young,
1986), liked versus disliked music (Gorn, 1982; Yalch & Spangenberg,
1993) and the effects of manipulating specific components of musical
structure (Alpert & Alpert, 1990).
This article reports the results of a field experiment, carried out in a
restaurant. Restaurants face the same problem as other service organ-
isations in that their offering is “perishable” and during quiet periods
resources are under-used. On the other hand, the number of tables in
the restaurant represents a finite capacity that is quickly filled during
busy periods and increasing the turnover of tables is the only way to
increase the number of customers. Therefore, regulating the flow of cus-
tomers in this service context is of paramount importance. The study
examines the effects of music tempo and musical preference on con-
sumer behavior. Specifically, it considers the effects of music on per-
ceived and actual time spent in a restaurant, the amount of money
spent, satisfaction, and future behavioral intentions.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

The Effects of Music on Consumer Behavior

The amount of literature on the effects of music on consumer behavior short
is relatively limited, but has steadily grown over the last two decades. standard

896 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
Bruner (1990) provides a review of the literature up to the beginning of Base of text
the 1990s, and continued interest in the topic is demonstrated by more
recent work by authors such as North and Hargreaves (1996a; 1996b),
Areni and Kim (1993), Yalch and Spangenberg (1993) and Kellaris and
Altsech (1992).
The two main domains in which the effects of music have been ex-
plored are advertising (Alpert & Alpert, 1990; Brooker & Wheatley,
1994; Gorn, 1982; Tom, 1990) and service environments (Areni & Kim,
1993; Herrington, 1996; Herrington & Capella, 1994; Milliman, 1986,
1982; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990). Of the research that focuses on ser-
vice environments, the majority has investigated the effects of music in
retail stores or shopping malls, but research effort has also been devoted
to eating environments, including restaurants, bars, and cafeterias
(McElrea & Standing, 1992; Milliman, 1986; North & Hargreaves,
1996a, 1996b).
The effects of music on behavior have been suggested to operate via
its effects on cognitive and emotional processes (Seidman, 1981). It has
been proposed that music influences behavior due to its effects on in-
formation processing (Kellaris & Mantell, 1994), emotional and related
physiological changes (Anand & Holbrook, 1986; Zimny & Weidenfeller,
1963), mood (Alpert & Alpert, 1990, Bruner, 1990) and through a pro-
cess of classical conditioning (Gorn, 1982; North & Hargreaves, 1996b).
There has been much interest in the view that the arousal properties
of music have a central role to play in its influence on behavior because
higher levels of arousal are associated with increased rates of activity
(Smith & Cunow, 1966). The arousal potential of music is believed to
relate to its structural composition. Bruner (1990) notes that “Music is
not a generic sonic mass, but rather a complex chemistry of controllable
elements” (p. 95). Music can vary along various dimensions including
timbre (the texture of the music, which incorporates volume), rhythm
(the pattern of accents given to notes) and tempo (the speed or rate at
which the rhythm progresses). Highly arousing music is defined as loud,
erratic, and difficult to predict, with a quick tempo, while music with
low arousal qualities is soft, monotonous, very predictable, and with a
slow tempo (Berlyne, 1971).
The arousal-inducing attributes of music may also affect behavior via
their influence on affect. Berlyne (1967, 1971, 1974) suggested that
there is a relationship between arousal and pleasure that takes the form
of an inverted U. Optimum stimulation level (OSL) theory (Berlyne,
1967) holds that pleasure peaks at a moderate level of arousal, whereas
at very low or high levels of arousal a stimulus is unpleasant and dis-
liked. There is mounting evidence in the consumer-behavior literature
to suggest that people prefer music with moderately arousing structural
elements (North & Hargreaves, 1996a, 1996b; Yalch & Spangenberg,
1990). This evidence is consistent with the findings of research into the short
relationship between holistic service environments and consumer be- standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 897 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
havior (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Tai & Fung, 1997), which has dem- Base of text
onstrated that, in pleasant environments, there is a positive relation-
ship between arousal and approach behavior. The shape of the OSL
curve varies, however, depending on the situation and personal char-
acteristics. Interindividual differences in preferred arousal levels of mu-
sic relate to factors such as age and gender (Kellaris & Rice, 1993). In
addition, research has demonstrated that music that closely matches
consumers’ tastes (Yalch & Spangenberg, 1993) or is believed to be ap-
propriate for the consumption context (Areni & Kim 1993; Konecni,
1982; North & Hargreaves, 1996c) is more likely to lead to approach
behavior. For example, fast, loud music may be regarded favorably in a
dance club or a bar, but slower, softer music might be preferable in a
more relaxing context such as a health spa.
One of the more consistent findings of research into the effects of
music on behavior is that more arousing music leads individuals to carry
out activities more quickly or spend less time on activities. Smith and
Curnow (1966) revealed that when loud music was played in a super-
market customers spent less time shopping. Milliman (1982) demon-
strated that music tempo affected the speed with which consumers
moved around a store. Milliman (1986) later showed that the tempo of
music in a restaurant affected the time that people spent in the restau-
rant, such that individuals dining under the fast music condition spent
less time at their tables than individuals dining under the slow tempo
condition. Similar evidence of the effects of music tempo is provided by
Roballey, McGreen, Rongo, Schwantio, and Stiger (1985) who found that
it affected the number of bites taken per minute in a university cafeteria
and McElrea and Standing (1992), who recorded that music tempo in-
fluenced the speed with which drinks were consumed at a bar.
In contrast to the research reported above, a study by Herrington
(1996), which tested the effects of tempo and volume variations on time
spent shopping in a supermarket, showed that neither music tempo nor
volume variations affected time spent shopping. Herrington did find,
however, that musical preference had a significant, positive influence
on the amount of time spent shopping. He argues that his results do not
necessarily contradict previous findings, but notes that music prefer-
ence was not accounted for in previous studies and that it may be a
more valid explanation of the effects of music on behavior.
Where previous research has revealed conflicting evidence about the
effects of music on behavior, both the null and the alternative hypoth-
eses are presented for testing in this study. In addition, the possible
interactive effect of music tempo and preference will be examined. The
first hypothesis, therefore, seeks to retest Milliman’s (1986) finding that
music tempo affects the time spent in a restaurant context, and the
associated null hypothesis is presented to re-examine Herrington’s
(1996) findings that music tempo has no effect on time spent in the short
restaurant, is also presented. standard

898 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
H1(a): Music tempo will affect actual time spent in the restaurant Base of text
such that individuals dining under the slow-tempo condition
will spend more time in the restaurant than individuals dining
under the fast-tempo condition.
H1(a)0: Music tempo will not affect actual time spent in the restau-
rant.

The second part of the hypothesis focuses on musical preference to

establish whether there is evidence to support Herrington’s findings in
the restaurant context. However, the direction of causality is not obvi-
ous in this relationship and so the hypothesis simply seeks to establish
the existence of an association between time spent in a restaurant and
liking of the music being played:

H1(b): Musical preference will be positively associated with the ac-

tual time spent in the restaurant.

In addition, this research will test the possibility that there is an

interactive effect of music tempo and preference on time spent in the
restaurant.

H1(c): There is an interactive effect of music tempo and preference

on actual time spent in the restaurant.

Although there are now several studies that have examined the ef-
fects of music on actual time spent in stores (Herrington, 1996; Milli-
man, 1982; Smith & Curnow, 1966) and restaurants (Milliman, 1986),
little research has investigated the effects of music on consumer time
perceptions. Consumers’ perceptions of time spent in a service setting
may be an important factor influencing their evaluations of the service.
In contexts where it is desirable to minimize the perceived duration of
at least some part of the service encounter, such as waiting at super-
market checkouts or waiting in a telephone queuing system, it may be
beneficial to create an environment in which time perceptions are re-
duced. By contrast, in leisure industries where consumers pay to spend
time in a pleasing and/or relaxing environment, it may be preferable to
increase the perceived duration of the service encounter.
A number of explanations have been advanced as to why music influ-
ences time perceptions. One explanation relates to information process-
ing and suggests that low-arousal music leads to fewer events being
encoded, which leaves individuals with the impression that less time
has elapsed (Kellaris & Mantell, 1994). Alternatively, Wansink (1992)
proposed that the influence of musical stimuli (varying in arousal-in-
ducing attributes such as volume and tempo) on time perceptions may
be mediated by affect towards the music and a person’s level of comfort short
with the stimulus. He suggested that where affective responses to the standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 899 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
music stimulus are favorable, perceived time will be shorter as time will Base of text
not drag. Similarly, where a person’s level of comfort with music is rel-
atively high, time perceptions will be shorter.
There is a small number of empirical studies of the relationship be-
tween music’s arousal-inducing attributes and time perception. In a lab-
oratory study, Kellaris and Kent (1991) illustrated that individuals
judged the duration of fast-tempo music to be longer than slow-tempo
music. Similarly, Kellaris and Altsech (1992) have shown that loud mu-
sic is perceived as longer in duration than quiet music. This finding was
supported by Kellaris et al. (1996), although their later study demon-
strated that the relationship was moderated by mood. Oakes (1999) also
conducted a laboratory study to test the relationship between musical
tempo and perceptions of a radio advertisement. He found that mean
time estimates were higher for the version of the advertisement accom-
panied by the fast music compared to the no-music version. Although
there was a discrepancy of over 6 s in the mean perceived duration of
the advertisements accompanied by slow and fast music, the difference
was not found to be significant. These studies provide some evidence
that time tends to be overestimated when people are exposed to music
with higher arousal properties, although it is less clear when respon-
dents are judging the duration of a consumption experience as opposed
to the piece of music itself.
With regard to affective evaluations of music, Kellaris and Kent
(1992) demonstrated that although perceptions of time duration varied
with musical manipulations (of modality — major, minor, and atonal),
affect toward the music stimulus had no significant effect on time per-
ceptions.
All of these studies were conducted under laboratory conditions, how-
ever, which raises questions about the external validity of the findings.
In particular, it is questionable whether the same effects would be ob-
served when people are passively rather than actively listening to
music. The second set of hypotheses focuses on the issue of music’s in-
fluence on time perceptions in the restaurant context. First, it is antici-
pated that music tempo will influence perceived time spent in the res-
taurant:

H2(a): Music tempo will influence perceived time spent in the restau-
rant such that individuals dining under the slow-tempo con-
dition will underestimate time spent in the restaurant, and
individuals dining under the fast-tempo condition will over-
estimate time spent in the restaurant.

Secondly, on the basis of Wansink’s (1992) research, musical prefer-

ence is proposed to affect time perceptions. To retest the Kellaris and
Kent (1992) findings, however, the corresponding null hypothesis is also short
advanced: standard

900 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
H2(b): Musical preference will affect time perceptions such that the Base of text
more individuals like the music, the more they will underes-
timate the time spent in the restaurant.
H2(b)0: Musical preference will not affect time perceptions.

In addition, this research will examine the possibility that the effects
of tempo on time perceptions are moderated by liking of the music:

H2(c): The interaction of music tempo with preference will affect time
perceptions.

A further point of interest for service providers is the effect of music

on money spent, although there is, as yet, only a limited amount of
evidence on this issue. Milliman (1982) carried out research in a super-
market and reported a 38% increase in sales when the store played slow
music rather than fast music. More recently, the study by Herrington
(1996) reported above also considered the effects of music on money
spent in a supermarket. He did not find any significant influence for
manipulations of tempo or volume, but his analysis revealed a signifi-
cant effect for musical preference. As for his findings regarding the ef-
fects of music on time spent shopping, Herrington’s explanation for the
discrepancy between his results and other studies related to the issue
that musical preference may an important determinant of spending but
had not been accounted for in the design of previous research. There
was also a notable difference between these two studies in that Milliman
operationalized spending by documenting the store’s daily sales volume,
whereas Herrington consulted individual consumers’ receipts.
In the restaurant context, Milliman (1986) found that, although there
was no significant effect of music tempo of money spent on food, there
was a marked difference when it came to the bar bill. He found that
groups dining under the slow-music conditions spent, on average, 40%
more on drinks than groups dining under the fast-tempo condition. The
logic of this was justified on the basis that there is less room for variation
in the amount of food consumed at a meal, but that people might rea-
sonably be expected to order more drinks. The hypotheses below were
formed to re-examine Milliman’s (1986) and Herrington’s (1996) find-
ings regarding the effect of music tempo and preference on consumer
spending in the restaurant and to investigate the interactive effects of
these two independent variables.

H3(a): Music tempo will influence the amount of money spent in the
restaurant such that those dining under the slow-tempo con-
dition will spend more than those dining under the fast-tempo
condition.
H3(a)0: Music tempo will not influence the amount of money spent in short
the restaurant. standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 901 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
H3(b): Musical preference will have a positive influence on the Base of text
amount of money spent in the restaurant.
H3(c): Music tempo and preference will have an interactive influence
on the amount of money spent in the restaurant.

Finally, on a more strategic note, there is a need to understand the

effects of music on restaurant patrons’ satisfaction with the dining ex-
perience and the consequences of satisfaction, including repeat patron-
age intentions and word-of-mouth communications about the service
provider.
The two main lines of thought on how music influences evaluations
of goods and services were introduced earlier in this article. On one
hand, researchers such as Gorn (1982) and North and Hargreaves
(1996b) have suggested that the process of classical conditioning can
explain the effect of music on consumer evaluations. Gorn (1982), for
example, found that consumers’ liking of a product, a pen, depended on
whether it was presented with liked or disliked music, and proposed
that this was due to consumers transferring their positive feelings for
the music to the product. Questions have been raised about the empir-
ical support for this explanation, however, on the basis of the limited
repetition of exposure to the stimuli and, therefore, the lack of reinforce-
ment (Alpert & Alpert, 1990). The alternative view of how music affects
consumer evaluations relates to mood research and the work of Bower
(1981) and Isen (1984; 1987). This literature proposes that mood influ-
ences cognitive processes, and there is a range of evidence to support
the view that individuals in positive mood states tend to evaluate objects
and events more favorably (Alpert & Alpert, 1990; Isen & Shalker,
1982), particularly in low-involvement decision contexts (Curren & Har-
ich, 1994).
Despite the importance of consumer satisfaction for the longer-term
success of a service organization, and the fact that future behavioral
intentions are recognized as a key aspect of approach – avoidance be-
havior, broader studies of atmospherics (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982), it
has not been a focus of interest in much of the research on the effects
of music on consumer behavior in services environments (Areni & Kim,
1993; Milliman, 1986; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990).
With regard to the first aspect of music that is of interest in the
present study — tempo — there is little prior research that provides in-
sights into its effect on customer satisfaction. Studies that examine the
relationship between holistic service environments and consumer be-
havior have found that, in pleasant environments, there is a positive
relationship between arousal and outcomes of the service encounter,
including enjoyment of the encounter and future behavioral intentions
(e.g., Donovan et al., 1994; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). This indicates
that faster music, which has higher arousal properties, may have a pos- short
itive relationship with customer satisfaction with a restaurant. How- standard

902 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
ever, this relationship may be tempered by consumer expectations and Base of text
preferences for the music to be congruent with the image of the restau-
rant (Areni & Kim, 1993).
In the study by Smith and Curnow (1966), which focused specifically
on the effects of music, it was hypothesized that customer satisfaction
in a supermarket would be greater when soft music was played than
when loud music was played. The rationale for this hypothesis is not
explained, but it appears to be based on the notion that loud music
would lead to a level of arousal perceived to be unpleasant by the shop-
pers. However, the study revealed no significant difference between the
two conditions. This may be because music used in the experiment was
not loud enough to create unpleasant conditions or produce negative
emotional responses. Levels of stimulation that are high enough to be
unpleasant may be caused by environmental stimuli such as crowding,
which are difficult for management to control, but service managers are
unlikely to employ music that produces levels of stimulation that suf-
ficiently high or low to produce adverse responses amongst the target
audience.
The various findings of previous research that can be drawn upon to
formulate hypotheses regarding the effects of music tempo on satisfac-
tion judgements leave some ambiguity surrounding this issue. In the
present study, it was assumed that the range of music normally used
in restaurants would not be unpleasantly arousing and, therefore, the
hypothesis was based on the notion that in pleasant environments there
is a positive relationship between the arousal potential of music and
consumers’ evaluations of the restaurant. The hypothesis formulated is
therefore:

H4(a): Music tempo will a positive influence on individuals’ evalua-

tions of the dining experience and future behavioral intentions
in terms of (i) their enjoyment of dining at the restaurant, (ii)
their intentions to return or, (iii) their intentions to recom-
mend the restaurant to others.

As concerns music preference, there is much stronger case to propose

that it will influence consumer evaluations. There is substantial evi-
dence from advertising research that liking of contextual features, in-
cluding music, influences consumer evaluations (Murray, Lastovicka, &
Singh, 1992; Park & Young, 1986). North and Hargreaves (1996b) ex-
amined this issue in a service context and found that individuals’ re-
sponses to music being played in a university cafeteria was reflected in
their evaluations of the cafeteria itself. Therefore, the hypothesis pro-
poses a positive relationship between musical liking and consumers
evaluations of the restaurant.
short
H4(b): Musical preference will have a positive influence on consum- standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 903 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
ers evaluations of (i) their enjoyment of dining at the restau- Base of text
rant, (ii) their likelihood to return to the restaurant, or (iii)
their intentions to recommend the restaurant to others.

The interactive influence of tempo and preference on consumer eval-

uations and behavioral outcomes is also examined:

H4(c): Music tempo and preference will have an interactive influence

on consumers’ evaluations of (i) their enjoyment of dining at
the restaurant, (ii) their likelihood to return to the restaurant,
or (iii) their intentions to recommend the restaurant to others.

RESEARCH METHOD

Research Design
The primary aim of the study was to investigate the relationships be-
tween music tempo, musical preference, and the behavior of restaurant
patrons. To this end, the empirical research comprised of a field exper-
iment, which was carried out at an Italian restaurant in Glasgow, Scot-
land. Two music tempo conditions were created based on the criteria
used by Milliman (1986) and later used by Herrington (1996): music
with 94 or more beats per minute was used to create a relatively fast-
tempo condition, and music with 72 or less beats per minute was used
to create a relatively slow-tempo condition.1 These levels were defined
by consumers in a pretest by Milliman (1986), in which consumers were
asked whether various pieces of instrumental music were fast, slow, or
in between fast and slow. They do not represent extremes on the tempo
continuum but, rather, are moderately fast and slow tempos. These two
tempos were assumed to evoke different levels of arousal in partici-
pants, but not necessarily different levels of pleasure.2 The tempos’ po-
sitions on participants’ OSL curves were not tested. Given the range of
extraneous variables that can influence the level of affect associated
with arousal and problems of conducting extensive preliminary research
in a field setting, affect was gauged by asking participants how much
they liked the music being played in the restaurant.
Attempts were made to hold other environmental variables constant.
The music used for both conditions was jazz, sung by Ella Fitzgerald
(the type of music and an artist commonly played in the restaurant) and
other environmental features such as the loudness of the music, tem-
perature, and lighting were controlled. Data were gathered on Thurs-

1
Herrington’s (1996) manipulation of music tempo varied slightly from Milliman’s in that he spec-
ified slow tempo to 60– 65 or fewer BPM.
2
Positioned on an individual’s OSL curve, the two tempos may have sat on the same side of the
peak, indicating that one was more pleasurable than the other, or they were adjacent to one short
another, on opposite sides of the peak, indicating that they evoked comparable levels of pleasure. standard

904 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
days and Sundays from customers entering the restaurant between Base of text
seven and ten o’clock in the evening and the music conditions were var-
ied over the two days on consecutive weeks. These days were chosen (as
opposed to the Friday and Saturday chosen by Milliman) in order to
keep respondents dining at peak times from being pressured by other
diners waiting to be seated. Another important feature of the restaurant
was that it does not take reservations, which avoided the problem of
diners’ behavior being influenced by awareness of the time allocated to
a particular sitting.
The data were gathered by means of observations and a self-comple-
tion questionnaire. The researcher recorded the time at which custom-
ers were seated and left their table3 and the amount spent on food and
drink. In addition, individuals were asked to complete a questionnaire
just prior to their departure. On the questionnaire, they were asked to
note a number of personal details, to indicate their liking of the music,
to estimate the time that they had spent in the restaurant, and to record
their enjoyment of the service encounter and their future patronage
intentions. Musical preference was operationalized by simply asking re-
spondents to indicate their agreement with the statement “I liked the
music that was playing” on a 5-point rating scale, where 1 represented
strongly agree and 5 represented strongly disagree. Satisfaction with the
service encounter was assessed via three attitude statements for which
respondents were asked to express their agreement or disagreement on
a 5-point scale. The attitude statements pertained to how much the
respondents had enjoyed dining at the restaurant, whether they would
return (reverse) and whether they would recommend the restaurant to
others. The questionnaire also included a question to establish whether
respondents were under any time constraints.

Sample
The two-seat tables in the restaurant were selected and only patrons
seated at those tables over the data-collection period were included in
the research. The final sample consisted of 62 customers, 30 of who had
dined under the slow-music condition and 32 who had dined under the
fast-music condition. This excluded eight individuals who indicated that
they were under some kind of time pressure (four people) and those who
declined to participate in the research (four people).
Of the 62 respondents, 24 were male and 38 were female. The major-
ity (48) of the sample dined at mixed-sex tables, while the remainder
dined at single-sex tables, which in all cases involved two females dining
together. Most (49) of the participants had dined in the restaurant pre-
viously; the other 13 were eating there for the first time.

3
Respondents were only made aware that the researcher had made these observations after com- short
pleting the questionnaire. standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 905 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
RESULTS Base of text

Before testing the research hypotheses, the relationship between music

tempo and musical preference was examined. The mean score for mu-
sical preference was slightly higher for the sample dining under the
slow-tempo condition (mean ⫽ 1.83, SD ⫽ 0.59) than for those dining
under the high-tempo condition (mean ⫽ 2.19, SD ⫽ 0.90), but a t test
indicated that this difference was not significant (t ⫽ ⫺1.82, DF ⫽ 60,
sig. ⬎ 0.05).
The first set of hypotheses is concerned with both the individual and
interactive effects of music tempo and musical preference on time spent
in a restaurant. Although these hypotheses might normally be tested
through the application of one multivariate procedure, in this case sep-
arate analyses are performed for each hypothesis to demonstrate how
these findings compare to previous research that may or may not have
included multiple predictor variables.
The average time spent dining in the restaurant was 89 minutes
(SD ⫽ 27.65 min). To assess whether time spent dining differed de-
pending on music tempo (H1(a) and H1(a)0), the sample was divided on
the basis of the two music tempo conditions. Analysis of the distribution
of responses in these two groups identified one outlier in the fast-tempo
group, which was excluded from the analysis. The descriptive statistics
calculated for the remaining respondents in each experimental group
are presented in Table 1.
The figures show that customers dining under the slow-music condi-
tion, on average, spent 15.03 min longer in the restaurant than individ-
uals dining under the fast-music condition. A t test was performed and,
despite relatively large standard deviations within each group, revealed
that the difference was significant (t ⫽ ⫺2.43, DF 60, p ⱕ .05). On this
evidence H1(a), which claims that individuals spend longer in a restau-
rant when slow music is playing, is accepted and H1(a)0, which states
that music tempo in a restaurant does not have an effect on the amount
of time that customers take to dine, is rejected.
To test the proposition that musical preference is related to time
spent in a service setting (H1(b)), time spent dining at the restaurant
was correlated with individuals’ reports of how much they liked the

Table 1. Time Spent Dining

Condition
(Sample Size) Mean Time Spent (min) Standard Deviation
Fast (29) 80.59 25.60
Slow (32) 96.56 25.63
short
standard

906 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Table 2. Multiple Regression Analyses Testing the Interactive Effects of

Top of text
Base of text
Tempo and Preference on the Independent Variables (Time, Perceived Time,
Money, Enjoyment of Dining, Intentions to Return, Intentions to
Recommend)
Beta t sig t
Time Tempo ⫺0.551 ⫺0.770 0.444
R2 ⫽ 0.29 Preference ⫺0.457 ⫺3.428 0.001
F[3,60] ⫽ 7.53, p ⬍ .01 Tempo ⫻ preference 0.812 1.159 0.251
Perceived time Actual time 0.685 6.198 0.000
R2 ⫽ 0.50 Tempo 0.769 1.265 0.211
F[4,60] ⫽ 13.77, p ⬍ 0.01 Preference ⫺0.002 ⫺0.014 0.989
Tempo ⫻ preference ⫺0.752 ⫺1.246 0.218
Total money spent Tempo 0.108 0.161 0.872
R2 ⫽ 0.29 Preference ⫺0.390 ⫺3.121 0.003
F[3,61] ⫽ 7.98, p ⬍ .01 Tempo ⫻ preference 0.204 0.311 0.757
Total money spent Actual time 0.654 6.691 0.000
R2 ⫽ 0.60 Tempo 0.835 1.621 0.111
F[4,61] ⫽ 21.69, p ⬍ .01 Preference ⫺0.051 ⫺0.479 0.634
Tempo ⫻ preference ⫺0.622 ⫺1.216 0.229
Enjoyed dining Tempo 0.630 0.899 0.373
R2 ⫽ 0.23 Preference 0.480 3.653 0.001
F[3,61] ⫽ 5.39, p ⬍ .01 Tempo ⫻ preference ⫺0.717 ⫺1.038 0.303
Intention to return Tempo 0.316 0.453 0.652
R2 ⫽ 0.23 Preference 0.452 3.456 0.001
F[3,61] ⫽ 5.60, p ⬍ 0.01 Tempo ⫻ preference ⫺0.455 ⫺0.661 0.511
Intention to recommend Tempo 1.199 1.703 0.094
R2 ⫽ 0.21 Preference 0.515 3.901 0.000
F[3,61] ⫽ 5.20, p ⬍ 0.01 Tempo ⫻ preference ⫺1.173 ⫺1.693 0.096

music.4 Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient was 0.452,

which was significant at the 0.001 level. This result supports Herring-
ton’s (1996) findings and indicates that H1(b), which suggests that mu-
sical preference is positively related to time spent dining, can be ac-
cepted.
The interactive effect of music tempo and preference on time spent
dining [H1(c)1c] was examined by a multiple-regression analysis. The
regression equation indicated an R2 of 0.25 (F [3,60] ⫽ 7.53, p ⬍ .01).
The results of the regression are detailed in Table 2. The analysis re-
vealed that the interactive influence of tempo and preference is not sig-
nificant and, therefore, H1(c) is rejected. In addition, the regression con-
firms that preference is significantly related to time spent in the

4
No outlying cases, in terms of time spent in the restaurant, were identified in the sample as a
whole. short
standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 907 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
restaurant, but indicates that tempo does not make a significant addi- Base of text
tional contribution to the explanation of time spent dining.
The second set of hypotheses regarded individuals’ perceptions of
time. Analysis of the relationship between actual and perceived time
spent in the restaurant (excluding one outlier) revealed a correlation of
0.60 (p ⫽ .000) (0.59 for people dining under the fast-music condition
and 0.67 for those dining under the slow-music condition). Therefore, to
assess the relationship between tempo and perceived time, the mean
time estimates for the fast- and slow-tempo groups were compared and
actual time was included in the analysis as a covariate. The results
revealed that, after adjustment for actual time spent in the restaurant,
tempo did not have a significant effect on perceptions of time spent din-
ing (F ⫽ 0.10, p ⬎ .05).
The proposition that there is a negative relationship between music
preference and the estimation of time spent in the restaurant was tested
by means of a multiple-regression analysis (excluding one outlier), in-
cluding music preference and actual time as independent variables. The
findings indicated that there although R was significantly different from
zero (F [2, 60] ⫽ 26.92, p ⬍ 0.01) only actual time made a significant
contribution to the explanation of perceived time (␤ ⫽ 0.66, t ⫽ 6.26,
p ⬍ 0.01). There was no relationship between musical preference and
time perceptions in this context (␤ ⫽ ⫺0.09 , t ⫽ ⫺0.82 , p ⬎ .05). These
results indicate that the H2(a) and H2(b) can be rejected, but that the
null hypothesis H2(b)0 cannot be rejected.
A further multiple-regression analysis was performed to examine the
interactive effects of music tempo and preference on perceived time
[H2(c)]. Actual time, music tempo and preference, and the interaction
between tempo and preference were included as predictor variables.
However, the interactive term was not found to be significant (see Table
2), and so H2(c) is similarly rejected.
The third group of research hypotheses regards the effects of music
on amounts of money spent at the restaurant. H3(a) and H3(a)0 were
advanced to retest previous findings (Herrington, 1996; Milliman, 1986)
concerning with the effects of music tempo on monetary expenditure in
a restaurant. Analyses conducted to test this hypothesis considered the
total amount spent as well as the breakdown between money spent on
food and drink. The total amount spent, on average, was £24.82 (SD
£6.56), which could be broken down in to £17.17 (SD £4.01) on food and
£7.63 (SD £3.75) on drinks. Table 3 details how these figures varied
across the two experimental groups.
The figures show a clear tendency toward higher spending in the
slow-music-tempo group. t tests were performed on the figures for total
spending and for the food and drink breakdowns. The tests revealed a
significant difference between total amount spent in the two groups
(t ⫽ ⫺3.36, DF ⫽ 60, p ⱕ 0.01). The difference in terms of the amount short
standard

908 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Table 3. Amount Spent at the Restaurant

Top of text
Base of text
Variable
Condition (Sample Size) Mean (£) Standard Deviation (£)
Fast Total 22.14 16.14 4.56 2.49 3.41
(30) Food 6.04
(30) Drink
(30)
Slow Total 27.33 18.14 7.20 4.00 3.47
(32) Food 9.12
(32) Drink
(32)

spent on food was also significant (t ⫽ ⫺2.20, DF 60, p ⱕ 0.05), as it

was for the amount spent on drink (t ⫽ ⫺3.51, DF ⫽ 60, p ⱕ 0.001).
To test Herrington’s (1996) alternative suggestion that monetary ex-
penditure in service settings is influenced by musical preference [H3(b)],
bivariate correlations were performed between respondents’ ratings of
how much they liked the music played in the restaurant and their total
spending and their expenditure on food and drink. Each analysis re-
vealed a positive and significant level of correlation. Musical preference
was highly correlated with total spending (r ⫽ 0.45, p ⱕ 0.001). With
regard to the separate components of food and drink, there was a
slightly higher level of correlation between musical preference and food
(r ⫽ 0.40, p ⱕ 0.001) than drink (r ⫽ 0.34, p ⱕ 0.01).
These results provide evidence that music tempo and musical pref-
erence, when tested independently, have significant effects on the
amount of money spent while dining at a restaurant and, therefore,
indicate that H3(a) and H3(b) should be accepted, whereas H3(a)0 is
rejected.
As with the other dependent variables, a multiple regression was run
to test the interactive effects of tempo and preference on money spent.
In addition, it was considered appropriate at this stage to examine
whether the relationship between time and money spent in the restau-
rant (r2 ⫽ 0.73, p ⫽ 0.00) would have any effect on the apparent rela-
tionships between music tempo and preference and spending. Given this
strong correlation a second multiple-regression analysis was performed
including time as an additional predictor variable. Details of the results
are displayed in Table 2. When the effects of tempo, preference, and
their interaction were analyzed simultaneously, music preference was
the only variable found to have a significant effect on spending. How-
ever, with the inclusion of time as an independent variable, neither
music tempo nor preference were found make a significant contribution
to the explanation of money spent at the restaurant. Therefore, despite
having evidence to accept H3(a) and H3(b) it appears that time spent short
standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 909 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
in a restaurant provides a better explanation of money spent. The in- Base of text
teraction between music tempo and preference did not have a significant
effect on total spending either and, therefore, H3(c) is rejected.
To further examine the influences on spending, separate regression
analyses were performed for money spent on food and drink. As for total
spending, when music tempo, preference, and the interaction term were
included in the analysis, music preference was the only variable to sig-
nificantly influence spending on food (p ⬍ .05) and drink (p ⬍ .05). When
time spent in the restaurant was added as an independent variable,
neither tempo, preference, nor the interaction had significant effects on
money spent on drink, but money spent on food was influenced by both
music tempo (p ⬍ .05) and the interaction between tempo and prefer-
ence (p ⬍ .05).
The final set of hypotheses for this research were concerned with the
relationship between the music played in the restaurant and the out-
comes of the service encounter in terms of enjoyment of the experience
and future behavioral intentions. H4(a) suggested that music tempo
would influence (a) enjoyment of the dining experience, (b) intentions
to return to the restaurant, or (c) intentions to recommend the restau-
rant to others. To test this hypothesis a series of t tests were performed,
the results of which are displayed in Table 4. Although for each depen-
dent variable the mean score was higher for individuals who had dined
under the fast-tempo condition, the t tests indicated that none of the
differences were statistically significant.
H4(b) regarded the relationship between musical preference and the
outcomes of the service encounter. A series of correlations performed to
assess this proposition demonstrated that there was a significant effect
for each behavioral outcome: There was a high level of association be-
tween liking of the music played in the restaurant and enjoyment of the
dining experience (r ⫽ 0.44, p ⱕ .001), intentions to return to the res-
taurant (r ⫽ 0.45, p ⱕ .001), and intentions to recommend the restau-
rant (r ⫽ 0.42, p ⱕ 0.001). These results indicate that the hypothesis
[H4(b)] can be accepted. There were, however, significant correlations
between the three outcome variables used here. Partial correlations
showed that there were significant, unique relationships between mu-
sical preference and enjoyment of the experience and intention to return

Table 4. The Effects of Music Tempo on Outcomes of the Service Encounter

Mean SD t DF sig.
Enjoyed dining Fast (30) 1.50 0.51 1.45 60 0.15
Slow (32) 1.25 0.80
Intention to return Fast (30) 1.70 0.47 1.87 60 0.07
Slow (32) 1.47 0.51
Intention to recommend Fast (30) 1.30 0.60 0.56 60 0.58 short
Slow (32) 1.22 0.55
standard

910 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
to the restaurant. However, the correlation between musical preference Base of text
and intentions to recommend the restaurant to others was not signifi-
cant when the other two outcome variables were accounted for.
Given the importance of past experience when considering issues of
satisfaction and repeat patronage, further analysis was conducted to
account for the possible mediating influence of whether or not individ-
uals had previously dined at the restaurant. However, this factor was
found to have very little effect on the levels of association revealed in
the analyses for H4(a) or H4(b).
H4(c) was tested with the use of a multiple-regression analysis, which
revealed that the interaction between music tempo and preference did
not have a significant effect on any of the behavioral outcomes. There-
fore, H4(c) is rejected in favor of the null hypothesis that there is no
interactive effect between tempo and preference on behavioral out-
comes.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study provide some interesting and occasionally un-
expected comparisons to previous research into the effects of music in
service settings. Both music tempo and preference were found to be
significantly related to time spent in the restaurant when analyzed sep-
arately. The findings regarding the effects of music tempo are consistent
with previous research in various types of catering establishments
(McElrea & Standing, 1992; Milliman, 1986; Robaley et al., 1985). How-
ever, when tempo and preference (and their interaction) were entered
into the same analysis, only preference emerged as significant. This
supports Herrington’s (1996) proposals that, although music tempo may
be associated with time spent in service, music preference is a more
valid explanation of the relationship between music and behavior.
None of the alternative hypotheses regarding the effects of music on
individuals’ perceptions of time spent in the restaurant were supported.
Accordingly, the null hypothesis regarding the effects of preference on
time perceptions could not be rejected. The findings here, therefore, con-
tradict Wansink’s (1992) proposal that affect toward music stimuli in-
fluences time perceptions, but support the Kent and Kellaris (1992) find-
ings, which demonstrated that affect toward music stimulus had no
influence on time perceptions. There was some evidence to suggest that
music tempo influenced time perceptions in the restaurant. The results
were not, however, significant. This outcome is at odds with previous
research that has found that music tempo influences people’s judge-
ments of the duration of music (e.g., Kellaris & Kent, 1991) but support
findings of research that has found music tempo to have no significant
effects on perceptions of the duration of a radio advertisement (Oakes, short
1999). The apparent discrepancies may be because the effects of tempo standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 911 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
on time perceptions may be different depending on whether people are Base of text
passively exposed to music during a consumption experience or actively
listening to it in an experimental context. Alternatively, differences
might be caused by problems of measurement in a naturalistic setting.
In particular, one cannot be sure that people have not referred to their
watches when getting ready to leave the restaurant or at other times
throughout the meal. However, this did not appear to be a particularly
pertinent problem as the results demonstrated that respondents’ esti-
mates of time spent in the restaurant were frequently inaccurate. In
addition, there are many intervening variables, including social factors,
the purpose of the event, or affective states such as fatigue, that are
likely to affect individuals’ time perceptions in a restaurant setting, and
there is a need for a broader range of factors to be considered in future
research on time perceptions in service settings.
As concerns the effects of music on spending, in initial analyses (in
which the effects of the independent variables were assessed separately)
both music tempo and musical preference appeared to significantly in-
fluence total spending and the amount spent on food and drink in the
restaurant. Spending on food and drink was higher under the slow-
music condition and for people who rated their liking of the music
higher. The fact that tempo influences spending on both food and drink
contrasts with Milliman’s (1986) findings that tempo only influences
spending on drink. In the discussion of his results Milliman argues that
it is reasonable to expect people to have a limit to what they eat but to
continue to order more drinks. However, personal experience suggests
that additional orders of both food (especially deserts) and drink are
often placed when a party remains at a restaurant for any length of
time. The inconsistencies between the two studies are not necessarily
indicative of poor reliability but may be due to any one of a number of
differences in research design (e.g., nature of the restaurants, the ser-
vice systems, days of the week on which data were gathered). Expla-
nation may also due to the different cultural norms of dining in a res-
taurant in America and Britain and related expectations of the
relationship between spending time at a table and spending money.
When the effects of tempo, preference, and their interaction on spend-
ing were examined in conjunction, only preference was found to be sig-
nificant. Once again, this supports the proposition advanced by Her-
rington (1996) that music preference is a better predictor of spending in
service contexts. However, when time spent in the restaurant was added
into the equation it was the only independent variable to have a signif-
icant effect on the total amount spent. A breakdown of spending into
food and drink revealed that tempo and its interaction with preference
had a significant influence on the amount of money spent on food, but
did not affect spending on drink.
Finally, the investigation of the effects of music on satisfaction with short
the restaurant service encounter revealed that neither music tempo nor standard

912 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
its interaction with preference had a significant effect on the degree to Base of text
which consumers enjoyed the experience, their intentions to return to
the restaurant, or their intentions to recommend it to others. In con-
trast, all of these measures of satisfactions were significantly, positively
correlated with musical preference. This result is in line with theories
of classical conditioning or mood effects. Further, it supports findings of
studies that have specifically focused on the relationship between liking
of contextual features (including music) in service environments and
satisfaction judgements (Murray et al., 1992; North & Hargreaves,
1996b; Park & Young, 1986).
These findings have implications for restaurant managers attempting
to maximize income. It appears that in addition to selecting music that
fits with the restaurant’s image, the most salient issue is to identify
music that is liked by consumer segments that frequent a restaurant or
that they can learn to like through exposure. If the characteristics of
customers vary according to times of the day and week, the range of
music played in the restaurant should account for the varying tastes of
the different customer segments. This information can contribute to ef-
forts to maximize turnover, as liking of music is related to time spent
in the restaurant, which is strongly related to the amount of money
spent on both food and drink. Moreover, on the basis of this research,
there would seem to be longer-term benefits of playing liked music given
its positive relationship with satisfaction judgements. At quiet times,
therefore, playing liked music is likely to increase turnover and profit.
The appropriate strategy for peak times is less obvious, as it is clearly
not advisable to play unpleasant music simply to increase turnover of
tables. Given the lack of evidence to support the effects of tempo, it
would seem that it is not worth investing in manipulating this music
variable.
Before arriving at any final conclusions, there are various limitations
to this research that should be borne in mind when interpreting the
results. The first issue relates to the tempo conditions used in the ex-
periment. The music tempos used to create the experimental conditions
were those that were perceived by consumers to represent fast and slow
music in a preliminary phase of Milliman’s (1986) study. However, def-
initions of fast and slow music vary depending on various individual
differences, especially age, and situational factors, and it may well be
that the range of tempos adopted by Milliman were not the most appro-
priate in the context of this study and, therefore, that the true effects
of tempo were not revealed. Further, it was not acceptable to the man-
agement of the restaurant used in the field experiment to manipulate
other arousal-inducing attributes of the music (e.g., loudness), which
would have provided convergent evidence of the relationships between
music’s arousing properties and behavior.
Second, as with all interventions in the field, there are possibilities short
that the data were biased as a consequence of the data-collection pro- standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 913 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
cedure and tool. For example, the independent variable of music tempo Base of text
was manipulated, whereas music preference was reported by respon-
dents. Also, data for some of the dependent variables were gathered
through observation, whereas data for others were collected via a ques-
tionnaire. The latter are more likely to have been biased as a conse-
quence of the intervention. Therefore, the apparent absence of a rela-
tionship between music tempo (a manipulated variable) and the
dependent variables associated with customer satisfaction (dining en-
joyment, intentions to return and to recommend the restaurant) com-
pared to the positive relationships found between musical preference
(reported by respondents) and these dependent variables (also reported
by respondents) may be partly explained by method of data collection.
Finally, data were gathered from customers at one restaurant. This
has implications for the generalizability of the findings, in particular,
the results reported here cannot be considered to be generalizable to all
restaurants when there is substantial variance between competitors in
terms of their target market and the type of occasion for which they
cater. In addition, only individuals dining at tables for two were in-
cluded in the research, and their behavior may differ substantially from
customers dining in larger groups.
There is a need for a wide range of further research into the effects
of music on consumer behavior in restaurants and other service settings.
In particular, there is a lack of research that considers the more stra-
tegic issues of whether music influences individuals’ behavior over time
by impacting on satisfaction and loyalty. The discrepancies found here
between laboratory experiments and research conducted in a natural-
istic setting highlights the need for more empirical research in the field
to identify valid and reliable influences on consumer behavior. Careful
attention should be paid to methods employed, however, to minimize
bias incurred by the research tool. It would offer further insights if ad-
ditional predictive variables were included in the research design, such
as the amount spent on alcohol, which may have a significant effect on
behavior. In addition, testing the effects of music across varied samples
and service settings is required to identify whether particular manip-
ulations of music structure are appropriate for use in different market-
ing contexts. There is also scope for research to build understanding of
the mechanisms by which music influences behavior.

REFERENCES

Alpert, J. L., & Alpert, M. I. (1990). Music influences on mood and purchase
intentions. Psychology & Marketing, 7, 109 – 133.
Anand, P., & Holbrook, M. B. (1986). Chasing the Wundt curve: An adventure
in consumer esthetics. In R. Lutz (Ed.), Advances in consumer research (Vol. short
13, pp. 655 – 657). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research. standard

914 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
Areni, C. S., & Kim, D. (1993). The influence of background music on shopping Base of text
behaviour: classical vs. Top 40 music in a wine store. In L. McAlister & M.
Rothschild (Eds.), Advances in consumer research (Vol. 20, pp. 336 – 340).
Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.
Areni, C. S., & Kim, D. (1994). The influence of in-store lighting on consumers’
examination of merchandise in a wine store. International Journal of Re-
search in Marketing, 11, 117 – 125.
Bellizzi, J. A., Crowley, A. E., & Hasty, R. W. (1983). The effects of color in
store design, Journal of Retailing, 59, 21 – 45.
Berlyne, D. E. (1967). Arousal and reinforcement. In D. Levine (Ed.), Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Berlyne, D. E. (1971). Aesthetics and psychology. New York: Appleton-Countly
Crofts.
Berlyne, D. E. (1974. Studies in the new experimental aesthetics. New York:
Wiley
Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and money. American Psychologist, 36, 129 – 148.
Brooker, G., & Wheatley, J. J. (1994). Music and radio advertising: Effects of
tempo and placement. In C. Allen & D. Roedder John (Eds.), Advances in
consumer research (Vol. 21, pp. 286 – 290). Provo, UT: Association for Con-
sumer Research.
Bruner, G. C., II. (1990). Music, mood and marketing. Journal of Marketing,
54(4), 94 – 102.
Curren, M. T., Harich, K. T. (1994). Consumers’ mood states: The mitigating
influence of personal relevance on product evaluations, Psychology and Mar-
keting, 11(2), 91 – 107.
Donovan, R. J., & Rossiter, J. R. (1982). Store atmosphere: An environmental
psychology. Journal of Retailing, 58, 34 – 57.
Gorn, G. J. (1982). The effects of music in advertising on consumer choice be-
haviour: A classical condition approach. Journal of Marketing 46, 94 – 101.
Gulas, C. S., & Bloch, P. H. (1995). Right under our noses: Ambient scent and
consumer responses. Journal of Business and Psychology, 10, 87 – 98.
Herrington, J. D. (1996). Effects of music in service environments: A field study.
Journal of Services Marketing, 10.
Herrington, J. D., & Capella, L. M. (1994). Practical applications of music in
service settings. Journal of Services Marketing 8, 50 – 65.
Isen, A. M. (1984). Toward understanding the role of affect in cognition. In R.
Wyer & T. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Isen, A. M. (1987). Positive affect, cognitive processes and social behaviour. In
L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social-psychology, 20, 203 –
253.
Isen, A. M., & Shalker, T. E. (1982). The effect of feeling state on the evaluation
of positive, neutral and negative stimuli: When you ‘accentuate the positive’
do you ‘illiminate the negative’? Social Psychology Quarterly, 45(1), 58 – 63.
Kellaris, J. J., & Altsech, M. B. (1992). The experience of time as a function of
musical loudness and gender of listener. In J. Sherry & B. Sternthal (Eds.),
Advances in consumer research (Vol. 19, pp. 725 – 729). Provo, UT: Associa-
tion for Consumer Research.
Kellaris, J. J., & Kent, R. J. (1991). Exploring tempo and modality effects on short
consumer responses to music. In R. H. Holman & M. R. Soloman (Eds.), standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 915 Base of RF

MAR WILEJ LEFT BATCH

Top of text
Advances in consumer research (Vol. 18, pp. 243 – 248). Provo, UT: Associa- Base of text
tion for Consumer Research.
Kellaris, J. J., & Kent R. J. (1992). The influence of music on consumers’ tem-
poral perceptions: Does time fly when you’re having fun? Journal of Con-
sumer Psychology, 1, 365 – 376.
Kellaris, J. J., & Mantel, S. P. (1994). The Influence of mood and gender on
consumers’ time perceptions. In C. Allen & D. Roedder John (Eds.), Advances
in consumer research (Vol. 21, pp. 514 – 518). Provo, UT: Association for Con-
sumer Research.
Kellaris, J. J, Mantel, S. P., & Altsech, M. B. (1996). Decibels, disposition, and
duration: The Impact of musical loudness and internal states on time per-
ception. In Advances in consumer research (Vol. 23, pp. 498 – 503). Provo,
UT: Association for Consumer Research.
Kellaris, J. J., & Rice, R. C. (1993). The influence of tempo, loudness and gender
of listeners on responses to music. Psychology & Marketing, 10, 15 – 29.
Konecni, V. (1982). Social interaction and musical preference. In D. Deustch
(Ed.), The psychology of music (pp. 497 – 516). New York: Academic.
Kotler, P. (1973). Atmosphere as a marketing tool. Journal of Retailing, 49, 48 –
64.
McElrea, H., & Standing, F. (1992). Fast music causes fast drinking. Perceptual
& Motor Skills, 75, 362.
McGoldrick, P., & Pieros, C. (1996). The atomospherics-customer behaviour
relationship: Role of response moderators. Proceedings of the 25th EMAC
Conference, 735 – 754.
Mehrabian, A., & Russel, J. A. (1974). An approach to environmental psychol-
ogy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Milliman, R. E. (1982). Using background music to affect the behaviour of su-
permarket shoppers. Journal of Marketing 46, 86 – 91.
Milliman, R. E. (1986). The influence of background music on the behaviour of
restaurant patron. Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 286 – 289.
Murray, J. P., Jr., Lastovicka, J. L., and Singh, S. N. (1992). Feeling and liking
responses to television programs: An examination of two explanations for
media-context effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 441 – 450.
North, A. C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (1996a). Responses to music in a dining area.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 491 – 501.
North, A. C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (1996b). The effects of music on responses to
a dining area. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 55 – 64.
Oakes, S. (1999). Examining the relationship between background musical
tempo and perceived duration using different versions of a radio ad. In Eu-
ropean advances in consumer research (Vol. 4, pp. 40 – 44). Provo, UT: As-
sociation for Consumer Research.
Park, C. W., & Young, S. M. (1986). Consumer response to television commer-
cials: The impact of involvement and background music on brand attitude
formation. Journal of Marketing Research 23, 11 – 24.
Roballey, T. C., McGreen, C., Rongo, R. R., Schwantio, M. L., Stiger, P. J.,
Winnger, M. A., & Gardener, E. B. (1985). The effect of music on eating
behaviour. Bulletin of the Psychometric Society, 23, 221 – 222.
Seidman, S. A. (1981). On the contributions of music to media presentations. short
Educational Communication and Technology Journal, 29, 49 – 61. standard

916 CALDWELL AND HIBBERT Base of RF

MAR WILEJ RIGHT BATCH

Top of text
Smith, P. C., & Curnow, R. (1966). “Arousal hypothesis” and the effects of music Base of text
on purchasing behaviour. Journal of Applied Psychology, 50, 255 – 256.
Tai, S. H. C., & Fung, A. M. C. (1997). An application of an environmental
psychology model to in-store buying behaviour. International Review of Re-
tail Distribution and Consumer Research, 7, 314 – 339.
Tom, G. (1990). Marketing with music: Exploratory study. Journal of Consumer
Marketing, 7, 49 – 53.
Wansink, B. (1992). Listen to the music: Its impact on affect, perceived time
passage and applause. In J. Sherry & B. Sternthal (Eds.), Advances in con-
sumer research (Vol. 19, pp. 715 – 718). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer
Research.
Yalch, R., & Spangenberg, E. (1990). Effects of store music on shopping behav-
iour. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 7, 55 – 63.
Yalch, R., & Spangenberg, E. (1993). Using store music for retail zoning: A field
experiment. In L. McAlister & M. Rothschild (Eds.), Advances in consumer
research (Vol. 20, pp. 632 – 636). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Re-
search.
Zimny, G., & Weidenfeller, E. (1963). Effects of music on GSR and heart rate.
American Journal of Psychology, 76, 311 – 314.
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and
constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to: Sally A. Hibbert, De-
partment of Marketing, University of Strathclyde, Stenhouse Building, 173
Cathedral Street, Glasgow, Scotland G4 0RQ (sally.hibbert@strath.ac.uk).

short
standard

MUSIC TEMPO AND MUSICAL PREFERENCE 917 Base of RF