The Effects of Music Mode and Tempo on Attraction

The Effects of Music Mode and Tempo on Attraction 1

The Effects of Music Mode and Tempo on Attraction

Jenna Launie

Siena College


Abstract

We looked at the effects that music mode (acoustic guitar vs. electric guitar) and tempo (fast vs.

slow) had on the ratings of attractiveness of job applications. Participants were 42 Siena College

students. Participants were given job applications including a photo of the applicant and a few

facts about their background. They received one application from a male and one application

from a female. They filled out questionnaires rating the applicants on their competence and

attractiveness, while music was playing in the background. The attraction was measured by

blood pressure, heart rate, and a self-report questionnaire asking about the applicants’ job

competence and about how they feel about the applicant on a personal level. A significant

interaction was found for men rating women on job competence. Women were seen as more

competent in the condition of an electric guitar and a slow tempo, and lower on competence in

the condition of an electric guitar and a fast tempo.


When it comes to choosing a romantic partner, or just being attracted to another person,

there are many factors that affect your perceptions of that person. When it comes to appearance,

research has found that there are some aspects of facial features that are commonly considered

attractive. For example, people tend to think that facial symmetry makes a person look more

attractive. It is also been found that people who appear to be more average looking actually are

viewed by society as more attractive, which could be because they are seen as a more obtainable

(Gangestad & Scheyd 2005; Langlois et al. 2000; Rhodes 2006). It is common for people to

associate positive traits with a physically attractive person. These can include happiness,

kindness, and successfulness (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). When one perceives a person

as more physically attractive, they tend to infer that their personality must match it and be

equally as attractive (Eagly, Makhijani, Ashmore, & Longo, 1991).

Perceptions of attractiveness are going to vary from person to person due to different

opinions that people have, but there are also environmental factors that could be responsible for

altering these perceptions. One very powerful factor is music. In many settings where people

may be meeting for the first time, there is some type of music playing. Whether it is background

music in an elevator or in a waiting room, or playing in a bar, a restaurant, or a party, this music

can affect people’s perceptions of attractiveness in other people. Music has been found to cause

a release of the hormone dopamine in the brain of the person who is listening to it. Dopamine is

a powerful hormone that has the ability to cause a person’s thoughts to become more happy and

positive (Berridge & Kringelbach, 2008; Bromberg-Martin et al., 2010). Due to the effects of


dopamine, the brain processes music in a similar way to how it processes rewards and other

pleasurable things such as food and sex (Peretz, 2010). In order to study the effects of dopamine

more in depth, an experiment was done on rats. The rats were given drugs to block dopamine

uptake. After taking them, the rats stopped reacting to anything that was pleasurable, which even

lead them to starvation, because they did not experience any pleasure from eating (Wise, 1982;

Wise et al., 1978). Dopamine is also known for causing a craving for these rewards. It has also

been proven to produce these positive and pleasurable feelings even in people who are suffering

from depression. A depressed person will still produce dopamine in their brain when they are

listening to music, even if they are unable to feel it’s positive and pleasurable effects (Osuch et

al. 2009). Because of this phenomenon, music is something that is commonly used in film and

movies because it can be paired with visual stimuli, which will help to enhance an emotional

experience, either positively or negatively, depending on what the producers want the audience

to experience (Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, & Lundqvist, 2010; Helmholtz, 1877).

Music is something that is very powerful in terms of dopamine being released. There has

been a positive correlation between psychological arousal and pleasure that is experienced while

a person is listening to music. This correlation suggests that when people are hearing music that

they find to be new and enjoyable, their body can tend to react the same way as it would if the

person was in danger, with a fight or flight response because of the adrenaline rush that comes

from the psychological arousal (Salimpoor, Benovoy, Longo, Cooperstock, & Zatorre 2009).

(Berlyne, 1971; North & Hargreaves, 1997). Emotional states that are the result of listening to

music often result in physical changes in the body (Habibi, A., & Damasio, A. 2014). If people

hear music that is familiar to them, it is more likely that their body is going to produce a


pleasurable response. The opposite is also true, in which case the music is more unexpected, it

does not lead to a pleasurable response (Huron, 2006; Meyer, 1956; Narmour, 1991; Vuust &

Frith, 2008). “The chills” is a sensation marked by an increase in heart rate and respiration, and

a decrease in temperature that is commonly known as a physical feeling in a person’s body when

listening to a good song. This is another example of how listening to good music can result in

physical reactions from a person’s body (Habibi, A., & Damasio, A. 2014).

Music is something that is very popular in today’s culture, across all generations.

Research has found that adolescents, especially, tend to use music as a way to cope and deal with

their emotions. It is also seen as something that may be affecting what kinds of emotions they

are having. For example, heavy metal music is a genre that is more commonly listened to by

adolescents, and it has been linked to an increase in anger and depression in adolescents who

listen to it. Adolescents who have listened to heavy metal music have felt a release of negative

emotions due to listening to the music. This has also led them to actually perform violent acts as

a result of listening to this music (Arnett, 1991). The types of music that a person listens to can

also influence the ways in which they think. Heavy metal music has been shown to lead to

aggressive behavior. It has also been observed that people who listen to heavy metal music are

more likely to think less of women than people who listen to other styles of music (Rubin, West,

& Mitchell, 2001). For people who prefer to listen to rap, or, more specifically, “gangster rap,”

the results of a study done with male adolescents in 1997 suggested that individuals who prefer

to listen to this type of music viewed their relationships with women as more hostile than people

who preferred other genres (Webster, Crown, Quatman, & Heesacker, 1997). There are gender

differences when it comes to interpretations of music. Research on adolescents has shown that


females tend to prefer to listen to music that is lighter, such as pop or dance music, whereas

males tend to prefer to listen to heavier and more complex forms of music, such as rap. This

seems to suggest that people of different genders have different types of brains, and some music

may be interpreted differently by certain people (Schwartz & Fouts, 2003; Sprankle & End,

2009).

It is hard to tell if the music is causing the mood changes or if they could be due to the

fact that the listeners already had these emotions and thoughts, and the music is just helping to

bring them to the surface (Shafron & Karno, 2013). A study done in 1987 concludes that there is

a connection between musical preference and emotion, and that both female and male

adolescents listened to a variety of different genres of music to deal with anxiety in their

everyday lives. People tend to choose to listen to music that will further bring out the emotion

and moods that they are already feeling inside (Kurdek, 1987). A study done in 2009 about

music preferences and friendships concluded that people tend to make a lot of assumptions based

off of others’ music preferences. The study found that if a person meets another person who

likes the same type of music as them, the first person tends to think that the second person has

more positive qualities. A lot of people see music as a big part of their lives so they tend to

relate with people who have similar music tastes (Selfhout, Branje, Ter Bogt, & Meeus, 2009).

Similarly, people who have certain music preferences tend to also have a lot of other things in

common as well (Leung & Kier, 2008). Another reason why music is so important in people’s

lives is that it can serve as a way to combat negative emotions and thoughts. A British study

done in 2009 confirmed the hypothesis that soul music can act as a protective factor against

depression because soul music was negatively correlated with depression, while an opposite


genre, pop music, was positively correlated with depression. Since depression is a chemical

imbalance in the brain, music has the potential to alter that because it changes people’s ways of

thinking as well, so it is no surprise that they are related and that certain types of music may be

seen as more likely to increase or decrease depression in certain people (Miranda & Claes,

2008).

These facts do not imply that music of any kind is capable of producing these pleasurable

responses. Sometimes, feelings that are produced as a result of music are not pleasurable.

Composers are capable of figuring out how to manipulate certain components of music, such as

tempo, rhythm, and texture in order to produce non-pleasurable responses instead (Juslin, 2000).

Both mode and tempo are aspects of music that play a very important role in determining how

people are going to respond to the music. Both are known for determining whether the music is

going to produce happy or sad emotions (Webster & Weir, 2005). Manipulation of tempo is

more likely to affect a person’s arousal levels, whereas mode is more likely to affect a person’s

mood (Husain, Thompson & Schellenberg, 2002). The speed of tempo is important because a

faster tempo typically results in greater left frontal lobe activity, whereas a slower tempo tends to

result in greater right frontal activity (Tsang, Trainor, Santesso, Tasker & Schmidt, 2001). An

increase in tempo causes listeners to feel an increase in the strength of their emotions, including

happiness or anger, but lower the feelings of sadness and serenity. This is because the faster the

tempo is, the more arousal there is in a person, leading to stronger emotions (Trochidis &

Bigand, 2013). In genres such as soul or R&B, there is typically an emphasis on danceable

rhythms, and a strong sense of beat, which involve a fast tempo, which causes listeners to

produce more of a “groove” response. This is more likely to create movement in a person, which


would lead to an increase in heart rate, and then in turn lead to higher levels of arousal (Janata,

Tomic, & Haberman, 2012). Mode is also something that is very powerful in music. A major

mode is typically associated with positive emotions such as happiness and joy, whereas a minor

mode is typically associated with negative emotions such as sadness (Dalla Bella, Peretz,

Rouseau & Gosseliln, 2001).

Previous research has been done on how music can change people’s emotions, and how it

can cause the body to produce physical responses. A great deal of research has been done on

how different types of music can cause people to have very different reactions, and that

variations in music such as tempo and mode can cause the music to be interpreted in completely

different ways. It has also been shown that people’s perceptions of attractiveness can be altered

with music. Our research took these concepts one step further by combining them, in an attempt

to see if a manipulation of temp and/or type of guitar can have a direct effect on how attractive

someone perceives someone else. We also tested to see how this affects people of different

genders. We tested tempo, fast vs. slow, along with guitar, electric vs. acoustic, and gender,

male or female. It is hypothesized that a fast tempo will cause an increase in heart rate, which

will increase arousal, leading to more attraction. A slow tempo would not increase heart rate, so

there would not be any increase in attraction. It is also hypothesized that women would find men

to be more attractive when listening to music with an electric guitar due to the stronger sound

being more masculine, whereas men would find women to be more attractive when listening to

music with an acoustic guitar due to the softer sound being more feminine. The attraction is

measured by the difference in heart rate taken both before and after the study, and also by a self-

assessment.


Method

Participants

The participants in this study were 42 students who attend Siena College. There were 27

females and 15 males. They were recruited using the Sona System, where students taking a

general psychology course can choose studies to participate in. They chose voluntarily to

participate in this study. They were between the ages of 18-22.

Materials

Music

There were four different variations of the same music, a song called, “Fade to Black” by

Metallica, with no lyrics, played on a loop. One condition of the music had an electric guitar and

a fast tempo. Another had an electric guitar and a slow tempo. Another had an acoustic guitar

and a fast tempo. And lastly the last condition had an acoustic guitar and a slow tempo.

Profiles

Participants were randomly two profiles, one of a male, and one of a female, out of four

possible profiles, two from each gender. These profiles contained a headshot picture of the

person of college age, and a small description about the person, including where they are from,

their major/minor in college, and some activities that they participate in.

Internship Description

Each participant was given the same sheet describing the details of an internship in

psychology. The page had a few brief sentences describing what the internship was and what

responsibilities an intern would need to do there.

First Questionnaire


Participants received two copies of the same questionnaire, one for each of the profiles

that they received. The questionnaire asked them to first to write down some qualities that they

felt the person had. Then we gave them some examples of traits and they had to rate how much

they agree or disagree that this person has this trait on a scale of 1-7, 1 being strongly disagree,

and 7 being strongly agree. Then the questionnaire asked them to rate on a scale of 1-7, 1 being

not at all, and 7 being very much, how they felt that the person matched the statement written.

Blood Pressure Cuff

Participants were asked to have their blood pressure measured after answering the first

questionnaire because they were told that we wanted to know if this was a stressful task for them.

The cuff was velcroed around their arm and air was pumped in, while a stethoscope was placed

on their arm to feel their pulse. The pulse was recorded and then once the air was released the

pulse was recorded again and both were recorded.

Second Questionnaire

Participants were given a second questionnaire, where their blood pressure was recorded.

This questionnaire had questions about their own experiences with internships and their music

preferences. It then asked them to circle a number from 1-10, 1 being not at all and 10 being

very much, on how well a certain adjective described how they were feeling that day. Then they

were asked to select an option or fill in one that best describes their sexual preferences.

Procedure

Participants were asked to sign in as soon as they arrived. They were then brought into a

lab room where music was already playing at a moderate volume level. They were told what the

study would be about, and then after signing a consent form they were given two profiles that


were randomly assigned to them, one female and one male. They were instructed to close the

door and remain in the room until they were finished with each of questionnaires. They were

told to open the door when they were all finished and the researcher would come in. Once we

came in, we took their blood pressure and recorded it on the second questionnaire. They were

then instructed to answer the questions on that questionnaire and then they could come out into

the waiting area where the researcher would be. They then traded in their questionnaire and

received a debriefing form and were told that they were free to leave unless they had any

questions for the researcher.

Results

We used an alpha level of .05 to determine if results were significant or not. We

performed a 2 by 2 ANOVA on the perception of social task competence, looking at the tempo

of music, fast or slow, and the music condition, acoustic or electric. The interaction effect of

music tempo and condition was significant for how males rated females in terms of their task

competence. F (1,39) = 10.721, p = .007. Males rated women as higher on task competence in

the electric guitar and slow tempo condition (M = 6.25, SD = .176). Males rated women as

lower in task competence in the electric guitar and fast tempo condition (M = 4.83, SD = .629).

There were no significant differences found for task competence in the acoustic guitar condition

for either a fast or a slow tempo. There were no main effects found. See figure 1 and table 1.

Discussion

Our hypotheses were not supported. We actually found opposite of what we predicted.

We predicted that women would be rated higher while listening to an acoustic sound, because it

is softer and more feminine, but our results stated that men rated women more positively on task


competence when they were in the electric slow condition. We also predicted that ratings would

be higher for everyone in the fast conditions because the faster tempo would lead to an increase

in arousal, but this was not the case. For female participants there were no significant findings

across all of the conditions.

Something that could have been affecting our dependent variable of arousal, measured by

the blood pressure cuff, is the atmosphere of being in a study. The stress of being a participant in

a study could have led to a higher level of heart rate and arousal from participants because they

were nervous, as many of them had never participated in a study before and did not know the

researchers. Participants sat with a researcher while the cuff was on their arm for one minute,

which may have been uncomfortable for some of them, which would mean that our manipulation

of music was not the variable causing their blood pressure and heart rate levels. Another factor

that may have been a effecting our manipulation was that participants were not actually listening

to the music during this one minute that the cuff was on their arm. We had them come outside of

the room they were originally in to meet us and measure their blood pressure. This definitely

could have made it harder for the music to have an impact. Another threat to our internal validity

could have been the standardization of the volume of the music. Due to the fact that the music

had to be set up and turned on each time a new participant was arriving, and since our speakers

did not have numbers for volume, the levels were likely to differ at least a little bit across

participants. Also, since we did not want the music to be too overpowering and distracting to the

participants, it may not have been loud enough to have an effect.

Some improvements for future studies would include having more participants,

specifically having a more even ratio of males to females. We had almost double the amount of


females than we did for males, so it would help our validity if the two were even. We also had a

majority of heterosexual participants and it may have added more validity if we had participants

of other sexual orientations as well. It may also be a good idea to standardize our visual images

that we used of people’s faces as much as we possibly can. A good way to do that would be to

standardize their races. Although we included pictures of people who were all rated the same

level of attractiveness, we did have one photo of an African-American male, while the other

three photos were of Caucasian people. It is quite possible that participants could have a race

preference when it comes to who they find attractive, so it would be best to standardize this as

much as possible. It would also be a good idea to keep participants in the room with the music

playing the entire time. The music would most likely be able to have a better impact on them if

they were exposed to it the entire time, which would include while their blood pressure was

being taken. Removing them from the room and the music may counteract the effect of the

music if they are not consistently exposed to it.


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Table 1


Source Type III Sum of Squares

df Mean Square

F Sig.

TEMPO .956 1 .956 3.533 .087

MUSCOND .012 1 .012 .045 .836

TEMPO*MUSCOND

2.901 1 2.901 10.721 .007

Error 2.977 11 .271

Total 474.344 15

Corrected Total 6.740 14


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The Effects of Music Mode and Tempo on Attraction