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Endless loops of songs like "All I Want For Christmas" in shops during the festive season don't just drive us mad - they also make us more careless with our money, academics have warned.
While repeated renditions of "Jingle Bells" may seem like an innocent attempt to raise customers' spirits during the nightmare of Christmas shopping, the songs also have a more subtle impact.
Background music, or "Muzak", can be used by marketers to impose cultures - such as the commercialisation of Christmas - onto consumers and influence their behaviour, experts said.
Dr Alan Bradshaw of Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “Festive jingles are force-fed to Christmas shoppers in a bid to change their mood, influence their sense of time and what sort of products they buy. In other words, this is an attempt to manipulate your shopping habits in a way that you might barely be aware of.
“Often we are told that we have the freedom to choose where we want to shop, but during Christmas the use of music in this way is so ubiquitous that our freedom to choose disappears.”
Dr Bradshaw and Prof Morris B Holbrook of Columbia University examined the phenomenon and found that retailers often "dumb down" the music played in shops to relax customers, meaning it is easier to control their behaviour.
It is thought that slowing down the tempo of music in shops can trick customers into thinking less time has passed, and therefore spend more time perusing the shelves, for example.
Some providers of background music have been known to promote their services by claiming they can boost profits by controlling the behaviour of customers.
A common trick is to take a popular current song and record an instrumental version which can be slowed down or sped up at different times of the day to influence behaviour in different ways, Dr Bradshaw said.
Background music is often classed as "Muzak" in recognition of the Seattle-based company which began producing its soft-sounding melodies in the 1930s.
(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
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學(xué)者警告說(shuō)，圣誕節(jié)期間商店里不斷循環(huán)播放的像《圣誕節(jié)我只要你》這樣的圣誕歌曲不但讓我們情緒高亢，而且還讓我們花錢(qián)更大手大腳。
也許重復(fù)播放《鈴兒響叮當(dāng)》這種歌竟是圣誕購(gòu)物惡夢(mèng)的罪魁聽(tīng)上去很無(wú)辜，但是這些圣誕歌曲確實(shí)對(duì)于提升顧客的購(gòu)物欲能產(chǎn)生更為微妙的影響力。
專(zhuān)家說(shuō)，背景音樂(lè)，俗稱(chēng)Muzak，可以被市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員用來(lái)向消費(fèi)者施加圣誕節(jié)商業(yè)化等文化影響力并影響他們的行為。
倫敦大學(xué)皇家霍洛威學(xué)院的阿蘭?布拉德肖博士說(shuō)：“商店強(qiáng)迫圣誕購(gòu)物者聽(tīng)這些喜慶歌曲，從而改變他們的心情，影響他們的時(shí)間觀念和他們購(gòu)買(mǎi)的產(chǎn)品種類(lèi)。換而言之，就是試圖用你幾乎察覺(jué)不到的方式來(lái)操縱你的購(gòu)物習(xí)慣。
“我們通常被告知我們有自由選擇我們想去的購(gòu)物場(chǎng)所，但是圣誕節(jié)期間，無(wú)處不在連續(xù)循環(huán)播放圣誕音樂(lè)，我們的自由選擇權(quán)也就消失了?！?/p>
布拉德肖博士和哥倫比亞大學(xué)的莫里斯?B?霍爾布魯克教授仔細(xì)觀察了這一現(xiàn)象后發(fā)現(xiàn)，零售商經(jīng)常會(huì)把店里播放的音樂(lè)“通俗化”來(lái)讓顧客放松，這意味著能更容易控制他們的行為。
據(jù)認(rèn)為，放慢商店里的音樂(lè)節(jié)奏能讓顧客誤以為時(shí)間過(guò)得更慢，這樣顧客可能就會(huì)花更多時(shí)間來(lái)仔細(xì)查看貨架上的商品。
據(jù)悉，一些背景音樂(lè)的提供商曾這樣宣傳他們的服務(wù)，聲稱(chēng)他們能通過(guò)控制顧客的行為來(lái)促進(jìn)利潤(rùn)增長(zhǎng)。
布拉德肖博士說(shuō)，一個(gè)常見(jiàn)的訣竅是把當(dāng)前熱門(mén)的一首歌曲拿來(lái)錄制器樂(lè)版，可以在一天當(dāng)中的不同時(shí)段放慢或加快音樂(lè)節(jié)奏，從而對(duì)行為產(chǎn)生不同影響。
背景音樂(lè)通常被歸為Muzak，這是為了紀(jì)念20世紀(jì)30年代開(kāi)始制作這種柔和悅耳音樂(lè)的一家名為Muzak的西雅圖公司。
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