Category: Money

Does the Type of Music Influence How Much We Spend at Restaurants?

By Brad Bell

Music can be soothing and make us feel happy.  But does music influence how much we spend at restaurants?  This is one of the important questions concerning the possible effects of music. North, Shilcock, and Hargreaves (2003) investigated the influence of the type music on spending behavior at a restaurant.  The participants were customers at a restaurant, and they did not know that they were in an experiment.  Each participant at the restaurant listened to either classical music, pop music, or no music.  They found that the mean total amount of money spent at the restaurant was greater for people who listened to classical music than for people who listened to pop music or no music.  The difference between the pop music group and the no music group was not statistically significant with respect to the mean total amount of money spent at the restaurant.(1)  One of the explanations they provided for the findings involved the idea that classical music fosters an upmarket (upscale) atmosphere.

Notes

1.  The analyses comparing the groups controlled for the amount of time spent in the restaurant.  See their article for other findings.

References

North, A. C., Shilcock, A., & Hargreaves, D.J. (2003).  The effect of
musical style on restaurant customers’ spending.  Environment and   
Behavior, 35, 712-718.

Does the Type of Bills You Have Influence Your Willingness to Buy a Product?

By Brad Bell

Imagine looking in your wallet to find five twenty dollars bills.  Would you be more likely to a product, such as a watch, than if you only had a hundred dollar bill in your wallet?

In Experiment 1, Mishra, Mishra, and Nayakankuppam (2006) randomly assigned each participant to one of three conditions.  In one condition, the partcipants were given a hundred dollar bill.  In a second condition, the participants were given five twenty dollar bills.  In a third condition, the participants were given a 50 dollar bill, two twenty dollar bills, and two five dollar bills.  All participants were asked how willing they would be to buy three products (e.g., a watch for $40) on a ten-point scale. They found that participants who were given five twenty dollar bills were more willing to buy products than participants who were given a hundred dollar bill.   Moreover, participants who were given one 50 dollar bill, twenty dollar bills, and 2 five dollar bills were more willing to buy products than participants who were given five twenty dollar bills. Several other experiments were conducted that helped to explain why there may be a bias for the type of bills that a person has.  These findings suggest that having smaller bills in one’s wallet could lead to a greater likelihood of buying a product.

References

Mishra, H., Mishra, A., & Nayakankuppan, D. (2006).  Money:  A bias for the whole.  Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 541-549.