Little research has been done about how music played in retail and office settings affects employees. So, a group of Cornell PhDs recruited 188 undergrads to participate in a voluntary contribution mechanism experiment. It measures and manipulates cooperative behavior among research subjects. One third of the group listened to “happy” music, another third listened to “unhappy” tuned and a third group listened to nothing.
Source: Washington Post, August 26, 2016.
‘We found significantly and persistently higher levels of cooperative behavior by participants who were played Happy music when compared with the other two conditions,’ the researchers wrote.
Still, the study is a useful reminder that workplace music can have a significant impact on employees, not just customers. Is it better to optimize for playlists that can get customers to buy more, or that can get employees to sell better? For that, more research is needed.