Surveying Background Music Listening Habits
Topic overview
In my thesis, I examined scenarios in which people listened to background music and their preferences for using specific types of music for their task interests. I also attempted to explore possible associations between individuals’ levels of extroversion, gender, and age and their use of music in everyday cognitive and monotonous tasks.
Accompanying music while performing other primary tasks is a common human habit. This kind of passive listening in the scientific music community is known as background music. Music has numerous functions and ways humans make sense of it. Still, the distinction between background music and other listening circumstances is that, in that case, music listening is not the primary goal. Often, it serves as a background ambiance while people are engaged in other tasks. Portable devices and streaming services have extended this form of listening by enabling us to carry music wherever we go and access endless audio materials.
There can be numerous scenarios in which people listen to background music, including studying, work-related tasks, shopping, commuting, household chores, etc. Because these tasks involve cognitive work, the scientific music community is interested in studying its effects on human task performance and exploring what drives people to have music with them with these seemingly unrelated activities.
A handful of research studies have demonstrated that the rationale behind listening to music mainly revolves around achieving a positive mood or efficient performance. Therefore, experimental research often uses music to test its effects on participants’ task performance.
On the other hand, enquiring about music listening habits can complement research direct laboratory measurements with individual opinions. Laboratory research is often confined to examining limited variables, while the survey enables the study of subjective views of a wide population in diverse music-listening contexts and brings human insight from real-life listening scenarios.
Methods and findings
In this thesis, I created an online survey to explore people’s music-listening habits while doing different tasks. I recruited participants from online platforms based on referrals from other participants. Overall, 158 participants completed the survey.
Two main trends emerged. People listened to background music more in relatively simple tasks such as traveling, driving, repetitive tasks, and household chores. In this task, participants reported listening to music with lyrics and upbeat music. In contrast, most participants favored instrumental and calming music in tasks such as reading, writing, and studying. This contrasting listening pattern echoes existing background music research where detrimental effects of vocal music are demonstrated on various cognitive tasks. One explanation that explains vocal music’s impact tasks is the interference-by-process account, during which semantic information of lyrics clashes with the semantic encoding of the primary task and harms performance. Suppose we remove the lyrical content of the music. In that case, the information burden of the auditory stimuli becomes lower, and performance might not be damaged. This effect can be implicitly reflected in individuals due to past music listening experiences, and the reason for listening to instrumental background music during reading, writing, and other complex cognitive tasks seems logical.
Listening frequencies in complex tasks (studying, reading, writing) and simple (travel, driving, repetitive tasks) tasks.
Listening frequencies by music type in complex and simple tasks
Other theories might also shed light on potential reasons people listen to calming music in complex cognitive activities. Calming music often has a slow tempo and sounds pleasant, making it less likely to arouse individuals. Another theory that is often used as a theoretical framework to explain music’s effect is the arousal account from Yerkes-Dodson Law. According to this theory, moderate arousal is sufficient to maintain optimal task performance in tasks that require consolidation of cognitive efforts. In contrast, relatively simple or mundane tasks require more arousing stimuli to achieve similar task efficiency. Choosing calming music in complex tasks elegantly fits into this theory as an arousal regulatory tool that might be used to enhance performance.
On the other hand, participants mentioned listening to vocal and upbeat music mostly when driving, doing household chores, and performing other repetitive tasks. They used music in these tasks to set their mood and break away from the monotony of monotonous activities. Another theory, mood arousal, also connects with these reports, as a positive mood coming from upbeat music helps individuals energize themselves in boring tasks.
Music listening and extroversion
Research on background music listening often emphasizes the role of individual differences in explaining variations of listening habits between people. One of the most popular personal characteristics studied in this realm is extroversion, a dimension of human personality. Considering extroversion in music listening and task relationship departs from Eysenck’s theory of cortical arousal. According to him, introverts and extroverts have different levels of optimum cortical arousal, which is necessary for optimal performance. This theory claims that the optimum arousal level is much lower for introverts than for extroverts; therefore, minimal external stimulation is sufficient to function well for introverts. Several studies on background music effects supported this theory, where introverts had worse task performance outcomes than extroverts when exposed to music while doing different tasks. Therefore, I was also interested in finding possible associations between participants’ lower extroversion levels and preference toward listening to instrumental and calming music during complex cognitive tasks, as these types of music are less arousing. However, the results of my survey did not support the experimental research’s evidence.
Scores (0 = neither non-vocal nor calming, 1 = either non-vocal or calming, 2 = both non-vocal and calming) show how many introverts and extroverts are in each music type condition.
Background Music listening and gender
I also tried to find associations between participants’ gender and the differences between their background music listening practices. Because there are findings from emotional research that claim that males are more easily aroused, I was looking for patterns where males would listen to less arousing/calming or instrumental music during complex tasks. However, statistical analysis of my survey data did not show this trend.
Scores (0 = neither non-vocal nor calming, 1 = either non-vocal or calming, 2 = both non-vocal and calming) show how many males and females are in each music type condition.
Background Music listening and age
The last component that I studied was the participants’ age. Also, borrowing from previous research showing that older adults are more susceptible to auditory distractions that might be more arousing, I anticipated they would listen to background music less in complex tasks; however, I did not find support for this hypothesis in my thesis.
Bottom line
Two findings confirmed that background music is more common for simple tasks, while instrumental and calming music are popular when people need enhanced concentration in complex cognitive activities. Individual characteristics such as extroversion, gender, and age did not confirm differences between individuals’ listening patterns. Overall, the findings of this thesis will contribute to existing research by confirming some of the already identified trends, and hopefully, it will help subsequent newcomer researchers identify relevant forms to research background music and its effects, and which population characteristics to focus on when considering diverse listening practices between individuals.
Survey can be downloaded from here.
GitHub repository containing all associated files for survey analyses can be accessed here.