It may have been many years since the last time you saw any of the films “Jaws” saga, but most likely you still remember the fear and the feeling of having the hair bristling at the moments of greatest tension of the film.
You may not have in mind, but if you look on the internet great film soundtrack, composed by John Towner Williams, feelings of panic become harder. Do you think you would have felt the same if the music accompanying the images of sharks eating swimmers had been, for example, of “The House on the Prairie”? Probably not. A group of scientists has been devoted to experimentally test this hypothesis and confirmed it was easy to guess: sharks give us more afraid when accompanied by creepy music when music is kinder or contemplate in silence.
This work, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, is not as silly as it sounds, since the image of evil and terrifying sharks so deeply rooted in the collective imagination hinders conservation campaigns of these valuable animals, as many people I would not hesitate to put money to help save the beloved panda bear, but when we speak of “bloodthirsty” and terrible, sharks things change. And the fault is not only the famous film of the 70s: also the prestigious documentaries used chains creepy melodies to accompany the images of sharks.
Better without music
To test the effects of scary music, the researchers recruited more than 2,000 volunteers who attended the screening of a documentary mini 60 seconds of the “Blue Planet” BBC series in which sharks of different species were swimming quietly and without causing any damage or eat anything.
The authors of the experiment proved that, after watching the documentary with music of fear, participants had more negative attitudes toward sharks that those who saw him without music or accompanied by an epic melody.
“Any organization that intends to promote a positive image of sharks or other species must carefully choose the soundtrack,” says Elizabeth Keenan, a professor at Harvard Business School and one of the coauthors of the study.
While this study focuses on sharks, the results confirm the power of music background in marketing campaigns, it can decisively influence the elections taking each consumer.
