Do you have that song that makes you feel like you are unstoppable? Is there a tune that pumps you up so much, that you believe you could run for miles? The article “The Music of Power: Perceptual and Behavioral Consequences of Powerful Music” discusses experiments that were performed in order to determine if there is a direct correlation with music and a sense of power. With the suggestion that music has the ability to influence the human mind researchers decide to dive into a more specific area of study. In a series of five experiments they touch on many aspects of power such as abstract thinking, moving first, and illusory control (Hsu, Huang, Nordgren, Rucker, & Galinsky, 2014).
It was hypothesized that music can have a direct effect on …show more content…
2014). First, seventy-five undergraduates were given a filler task by giving five statements on the two impartial images (Hsu et al. 2014). After this, the actual experiment was for the subjects to be measured by following the die-rolling paradigm: subjects were to predict the outcome of typical six-sided die roll (Hsu et al. 2014). Participants would then decided whether or not they would be the one to roll the dice. Choosing to roll the dice themselves gives them a sense of control over the situation; inevitably the individual believes they have a personal impact or power on how the dice is rolled.
Similar to the other experiments the independent variable is the type of music they are listening to; high-power versus low-power. The dependent variable however varies slightly. The overall dependent is the sense of power, but in the experiment discussed it is specifically illusory control. Researchers do not know what the outcome of this variable will be, it is out of their control, they can only observe …show more content…
Most have to do with the individuals being tested. First, someone may have a preference towards sports music, which is the genre of the pieces. Hearing that genre could elicit an automatic sense of power. Another is the consideration that the person is either self- conscious or self-confident. Depending on where they may fall on the self-esteem range despite the music, the data collected could be potentially affected by it. Out of the many confounding variables, the one that stood out to me the most was the volume of the music. The article did say that in experiment 5a and 5b that volume was regulated, thus everyone listened to it at the same amplitude (Hsu et al. 2014). However, this was not controlled in the first four experiments. A simple mistake like that could easily alter the data that was
It was hypothesized that music can have a direct effect on …show more content…
2014). First, seventy-five undergraduates were given a filler task by giving five statements on the two impartial images (Hsu et al. 2014). After this, the actual experiment was for the subjects to be measured by following the die-rolling paradigm: subjects were to predict the outcome of typical six-sided die roll (Hsu et al. 2014). Participants would then decided whether or not they would be the one to roll the dice. Choosing to roll the dice themselves gives them a sense of control over the situation; inevitably the individual believes they have a personal impact or power on how the dice is rolled.
Similar to the other experiments the independent variable is the type of music they are listening to; high-power versus low-power. The dependent variable however varies slightly. The overall dependent is the sense of power, but in the experiment discussed it is specifically illusory control. Researchers do not know what the outcome of this variable will be, it is out of their control, they can only observe …show more content…
Most have to do with the individuals being tested. First, someone may have a preference towards sports music, which is the genre of the pieces. Hearing that genre could elicit an automatic sense of power. Another is the consideration that the person is either self- conscious or self-confident. Depending on where they may fall on the self-esteem range despite the music, the data collected could be potentially affected by it. Out of the many confounding variables, the one that stood out to me the most was the volume of the music. The article did say that in experiment 5a and 5b that volume was regulated, thus everyone listened to it at the same amplitude (Hsu et al. 2014). However, this was not controlled in the first four experiments. A simple mistake like that could easily alter the data that was