Work 38 (2011) 383–387 383

DOI 10.3233/WOR-2011-1141
IOS Press

Effects of background music on concentration

of workers
Rong-Hwa Huanga and Yi-Nuo Shihb,c,d,∗
a
Department of Business Administration, College of Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, Xinzhuang City,
Taiwan
b
Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Xinzhuang City, Taiwan
c
Department of Psychology, Municipal Wan Fang Hospital, Xinzhuang City, Taiwan
d
College of Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, Xinzhuang City, Taiwan

Received 2 December 2008

Accepted 6 September 2009

Abstract. Objective: Background music is a common element in daily living and the workplace. Determination of whether
background music affects human work concentration is a relevant concern. Studies have found background music influences
human behavior, and this study attempts to understand how background music and listener fondness for types of music affects
worker concentration.
Methods: This study analyzes how different types of background music – and how listeners’ degree of preference for the
background music – can affect listener concentration in attention testing through Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).
Participants: Data were collected from 89 workers. The participants ranged in age between 19 and 28 years old, with an average
age of 24 years old.
Results: We conclude background music influenced listener attention. This influence has more to do with listener fondness for the
music than with type of music. Compared to situations without background music, the likelihood of background music affecting
test-taker attention performance is likely to increase with the degree to which the test-taker likes or dislikes the music.
Conclusions: It is important not to select music that workers strongly like or dislike when making a selection of background
music to avoid negatively affecting worker concentration.

Keywords: Background music, work environment, worker concentration, attention performance

1. Introduction uals. Background music is very popular in hotels,

restaurants, offices, banks, shops, and hospitals [11].
Numerous investigations have studied the various Some therapists have indicated appropriate usage of
workplace factors from considerations of hardware background music can help increase the effectiveness
equipment to how air quality influences human work of therapy [13,20]. This study examines whether back-
performance [16]. However, few documented stud- ground music affects the behavior or attention of indi-
ies have examined how stimuli such as music and viduals in work environments, and whether music helps
sounds can influence the task performance of individ- stimulate improved work performance. Scheufele in-
troduced background music into a job-training group
for chronic psychotic patients and found background
∗ Address for correspondence: Yi-Nuo Shih, Department of Occu-
music can help trainees focus, reduce anxiety, and com-
pational Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University. plete job assignments more quickly [19]. Another in-
510, Zhongzheng Rd., Xinzhuang City, Taipei County 242, Taiwan.
Tel.: +886 2 29053408; Fax: +886 2 9046743; E-mail: 062161@ vestigation concluded when employees work while lis-
mail.fju.edu.tw. tening to music, their work performance and morale

1051-9815/11/$27.50  2011 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved
384 R.-H. Huang and Y.-N. Shih / Effects of background music on concentration of workers

improve, and their satisfaction with the company in- Researchers conducted cognitive tests while exam-
creases [17]. Ravaja and Kallinen found background ining the possible influence of background music on
music stimulus increased the interest of some newspa- participant cognitive testing scores [4,11]. This inves-
per readers and helped them concentrate on reading; tigation examines the influence of background music
yet the same stimulus negatively affected some other on participant scores in attention tests. This work at-
participants [18]. tempts to gain a preliminary understanding of the pos-
At numerous job sites, such as stores and hospitals, sible influence of background music on individual fo-
people listen to music of many types including popular cus and attention during task performance with a Ran-
music, while working. Numerous psychologists and domized Controlled Trial (RCT). This study follows
management specialists studied the possible effects of previous studies in examining the influence of back-
music on human behavior in the workplace [2,12,22]. ground music on participant performance incognitive
Background music can alter human behavior [17]. testing [4,11]. Using “attention” as the research index,
With regard to the rhythm of background music, this work gauges test-taker preference for background
Szabo demonstrated individuals engaged in exercise music while analyzing how type of background music
pick up pace to match music with a faster tempo, and influences attention.
slow pace to match music with a slower tempo [21]. This study examines the following hypotheses:
Music tempo may influence the heartbeat of listeners. Hypothesize 1: Compared to the absence of back-
Edworthy and Waring found when background music ground music, background music may influence
has fast tempo, listeners performing exercise will ex- attention test scores.
perience faster heartbeat; the same effect is observed Hypothesize 2: Compared to the absence of back-
in the case of background music with loud volume. ground music, background music becomes more
These phenomena may indirectly influence work per- likely to affect attention test scores when the par-
formance [7]. According to one survey of 24 gradu- ticipant strongly likes or dislikes that background
ate students, fast-tempo background music can increase music.
work efficiency [15].
One study of group therapy demonstrated different
types of background music – classical music, popular 2. Method
music, traditional Chinese music, and no music at all –
influenced the occurrence of frequency of inappropriate This pilot study used a Randomized Controlled Trial
behaviors of patients with psychosis [20]. Evans and (RCT).
Johnson studied typewriting effectiveness and found
background noise in the office can affect worker typ- 2.1. Research participants
ing efficiency [8]. Furnham concluded the influence of
Eighty-nine voluntary workers (52 females and
background music on work efficiency varies according
37 males) enrolled in the on-job bachelor’s degree pro-
to type of music and work [9]. Furnham and Allass
gram of a university in Taipei city. The participants
compared the effects of background music with and
ranged in age between 19 and 28 years old, with an
without lyrics, and found instrumental music can im-
average age of 24 years old.
prove the reading comprehension performance of lis-
teners, whereas songs with lyrics tend to distract listen- 2.2. Research equipment
ers [10].
Furnham and Strbac found in a cognitive test, par- A. “Chu’s Attention Test” is a standard evaluation
ticipants performed best in silence, background mu- tool frequently used in occupational therapy in
sic was second best for performance, and background China [3]. This test is used to predict attention
noise was lowest results. Compared to silence, both level in community services. The written test
background music and background noise can negative- includes over 100 questions, each of which re-
ly impact work performance [11]. However, precise- quires the test taker to view a series of scrambled
ly which factors cause background music to positively codes, search for the “*” sign among these codes,
influence work performance and which factors do the and count the occurrences of “*” for the test du-
opposite is unclear and deserves further study. No pre- ration of 1 minutes. The final score is obtained
vious study has explored the effects of appreciation of by deducting “Number of wrong answers” from
background music on worker concentration. “Total number of answers.”
 R.-H. Huang and Y.-N. Shih / Effects of background music on concentration of workers 385

Table 1
Attention test score of four groups with different kinds of background music
N Mean Std. deviation
Group One (no background music) 23 104.87 11.99
Group Two (popular songs) 22 93.91 31.97
Group Three (classical light music) 20 98.20 24.38
Group Four (traditional Chinese music) 24 96.96 25.40

B. Background Music: The researchers prepared without such exposure (see Table 1). The average at-
samples of three types of music of 10 minute tention test score for Group One (no background mu-
segments each. sic) was 104.9. Group Two (popular songs) had an
– Popular music: Five best-selling popular average score of 98.2, while Group Three (classical
songs from the previous year. light music) had an average score of 93.9, and Group
– Classical light music: Five excerpts from the Four (traditional Chinese music) had an average score
music of Pachelbel, Bach, and other com- of 96.9. However, ANOVA analysis showed no signif-
posers. icant difference between the three background-music
– Traditional Chinese music: Five short pieces groups and the no-music group.
of instrumental music.
C. Tool for statistical analysis: The SPSS15.0 statis- 3.2. Attention test scores and degree of liking for
tics software. background music

2.3. Research procedure Participants in groups Two, Three and Four were
asked to rate level of liking for the background music
Step one: Eighty-nine volunteers were randomly di- on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. Compared to Group One
vided into four groups. The age and sex of the four (no background music), participants assigning extreme
groups has no difference by ANOVA analysis. scores to the background music (either strongly liked
Step two: Chu’s Attention Test was administered to or strongly disliked) tended to exhibit lower attention
all four groups. The 23 participants in Group One were test scores (see Table 2). The difference between these
tested in a quiet environment. The 22 Group Two par- subjects with strong feelings regarding the background
ticipants were tested in an environment with a back- music and those in the no background music group was
ground of pop music. The 20 Group Three participants
statistically significant (sig. = 0.028; 0.005).
were tested in an environment with classical light mu-
sic. The 24 Group Four participants were tested in an
environment with traditional Chinese music.
Step three: Following the test, participants belonging 4. Discussion
to groups Two, Three, and Four were asked to assess the
background music using a Likert Scale ranging from This study demonstrates background music influ-
1 to 5, where 1 indicates strongly dislike, 2 denotes ences attention test scores, but its influence is not statis-
dislike, 3 denotes neither like nor dislike, 4 denotes tically significant. Furthermore, compared to no back-
like, and 5 denotes strongly like. ground music, the more a test taker likes or dislikes
Step four: ANOVA was applied to analyze both how background music, the more likely this music is to in-
different types of background music can influence at- fluence his/her attention test score. This second finding
tention test performance; and how participant prefer- supports Hypothesis 2.
ence for background music can influence attention test
score. 4.1. Using Occupational Form and Occupational
Performance to observe the influence of music on
human attention
3. Results

3.1. Attention test scores and the type of background Why background music should influence the atten-
music tion test scores of listeners is a key question. Music
can be attributed to a certain occupational form using
The attention test results indicate test takers exposed the frame of reference related to occupational form and
to background music tend to score lower than those occupational performance,. This theory maintains that
386 R.-H. Huang and Y.-N. Shih / Effects of background music on concentration of workers

Table 2
Preference level for background music and Attention test score
Preference level for N Mean Std. deviation The difference between
background music background and no
background music. Sig.
1 point – dislike very much 6 73.83 25.92 0.028
2 point – dislike 3 114.33 17.95 0.980
3 point – feel passably 20 104.75 26.88 1.000
4 point – like 21 105.48 15.52 1.000
5 point – like very much 16 78.81 29.63 0.005

occupational performance changes with occupational 5. Conclusion

form [14]; therefore, a theoretical explanation exists
for why changes in background noise and music in- Background music has been used widely in numer-
fluence human behaviors. As scholars have pointed ous kinds of work environments [1]. This study using
out, music likely influences listener degree of alertness “attention” as the research index concluded listener at-
and behavior [5]. One study found background mu- tention was influenced by background music percep-
sic alleviates restlessness and distraction in psychiatric tion when doing a task. However, this phenomenon was
patients and enables daily living activities to proceed related to listener feelings regarding the background
more smoothly [6]. Background music can be seen as music rather than the type of music selected by the re-
a part of occupational form and can influence attention. searchers. This study found that comparative to a situ-
Our observations can be explained by theory. ation with no background music, the influence of back-
ground music on listener attention test score increas-
es with the intensity of listener feelings regarding the
4.2. Using the findings of this research to provide
background music. Thus, when selecting background
preliminary interpretation of the conflicting
music for work environments, such as offices, factories,
findings obtained by previous studies
and therapy rooms, it is important to avoid music that
workers strongly like or dislike. Avoiding such music
Background music is widely used in locations such can help avoid unduly impacting listener attention and,
as hotels, restaurants, offices, banks, stores and hospi- consequently, work performance. This investigation
tals [1]. This study assesses participant liking for back- gathered data from a sample pool comprising of just
ground music, and then analyzes the influence of back- 89 individuals. Subsequent study of the influence of
ground music on participant attention test score. No background music in work environments should utilize
previous study has adopted this approach. This study more attention test tools and a larger number of test
found strong test-taker like or dislike for background samples. Further studies should examine additional
music has negative and statistically significant effect on music types and worker fondness for a wider variety of
attention test scores. This phenomenon occurs because music in order to produce stronger and more diversified
people naturally tend to pay more attention to back- results.
ground music that they strongly like or dislike. Conse-
quently, attention is drawn in by the background mu-
sic, effecting ability to focus on work. Some previous References
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