The influence of background music on shopping behavior: classical versus top-forty music in a wine store

As part of a field experiment in a large U.S. city, the background music (classical versus Top-Forty) in a centrally located wine store was varied over a two month period. The results of an ANOVA indicated that the classical music influenced shoppers to spend more money. Additional findings suggest that, rather than increasing the amount of wine purchased, customers selected more expensive merchandise when classical music was played in the background. MacInnis and Park\u27s (1991) notion that music is more persuasive when it fits the persuasion context is employed to account for these results