The music of power: perceptual and behavioral consequences of powerful music

Abstract

Music has long been suggested to be a source of power and power-related experiences. The current research investigated whether music can evoke an implicit sense of power and produce power-related cognition and behavior. Initial pretests identified musical selections that generated subjective feelings of power. Experiment 1 found that music pretested to be powerful (i.e., powerful music) implicitly activated the construct of power in listeners. Experiments 2-4 demonstrated that powerful music produced three known important downstream consequences of power: abstract thinking, illusory control, and action-oriented behavior. The effects of powerful music on thought and behavior occurred both during music listening and after brief exposure to music. Importantly, the effect of powerful music persisted even after controlling for positive emotions and was independent of the lyrics. This research expands our understanding of music¡¦s influence on cognition and behavior and uncovers a novel antecedent of individuals' sense of power.