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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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學者警告說，圣誕節期間商店里不斷循環播放的像《圣誕節我只要你》這樣的圣誕歌曲不但讓我們情緒高亢，而且還讓我們花錢更大手大腳。
也許重復播放《鈴兒響叮當》這種歌竟是圣誕購物惡夢的罪魁聽上去很無辜，但是這些圣誕歌曲確實對于提升顧客的購物欲能產生更為微妙的影響力。
專家說，背景音樂，俗稱Muzak，可以被市場營銷人員用來向消費者施加圣誕節商業化等文化影響力并影響他們的行為。
倫敦大學皇家霍洛威學院的阿蘭?布拉德肖博士說：“商店強迫圣誕購物者聽這些喜慶歌曲，從而改變他們的心情，影響他們的時間觀念和他們購買的產品種類。換而言之，就是試圖用你幾乎察覺不到的方式來操縱你的購物習慣。
“我們通常被告知我們有自由選擇我們想去的購物場所，但是圣誕節期間，無處不在連續循環播放圣誕音樂，我們的自由選擇權也就消失了。”
布拉德肖博士和哥倫比亞大學的莫里斯?B?霍爾布魯克教授仔細觀察了這一現象后發現，零售商經常會把店里播放的音樂“通俗化”來讓顧客放松，這意味著能更容易控制他們的行為。
據認為，放慢商店里的音樂節奏能讓顧客誤以為時間過得更慢，這樣顧客可能就會花更多時間來仔細查看貨架上的商品。
據悉，一些背景音樂的提供商曾這樣宣傳他們的服務，聲稱他們能通過控制顧客的行為來促進利潤增長。
布拉德肖博士說，一個常見的訣竅是把當前熱門的一首歌曲拿來錄制器樂版，可以在一天當中的不同時段放慢或加快音樂節奏，從而對行為產生不同影響。
背景音樂通常被歸為Muzak，這是為了紀念20世紀30年代開始制作這種柔和悅耳音樂的一家名為Muzak的西雅圖公司。
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（中國日報網英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯：Julie）
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