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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Happy Tunes

You can’t escape it at this time of year. Walk into any mall or store and “Jingle Bells,” “White Christmas,” or some other Christmas season song will be playing.

The stores do this because it gets you in the mood for Christmas shopping and spending. We all know that music affects mood, which is why so much research has gone into finding the right music to play in stores. But music affects not only customers but also employees.

New research by Kevin Kniffin, who teaches at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, and his colleagues found that happy music had a positive effect on employees. In a series of experiments, the researchers found that people who listen to happy music in a group setting are more cooperative and less self-interested than those who listen to screamo music (a form of emo music typically featuring screaming vocals) or those who did not listen to any music. Because they found no difference in the level of cooperation between those who listened to screamo and those who were not exposed to any music, the researchers concluded that it was the happy music that made the difference.

Need everyone to get along to solve a problem or brainstorm new ideas at work? Listening to some happy tunes just might do the trick. Here are the songs that the researchers played.


 

Happy Playlist 

 

Screamo Playlist

  • “Smokahontas,” by Attack Attack!
  • “You Ain’t No Family,” by iwrestledabearonce

 

Source: hbr.org