囧研究:愛聽聖誕歌曲?小心讓你花錢更多!

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.

在節日期間，商店裏不停地循環播放像《我想要的聖誕禮物》（All I Want For Christmas）這樣的經典歌曲，這不僅僅會讓我們心煩 。日前就有學者警告說，這也會讓我們更捨得花錢。

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.

不斷重複的《鈴兒響叮噹》（Jingle Bells）的旋律，貌似是給消費者在噩夢般的聖誕購物時提神使用的，實際上還有微妙的影響。

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.

專家們認爲，這種在公共場所連續播放的背景音樂（又名“米尤扎克”），可以被營銷人員用來向消費者們灌輸文化，例如聖誕節的商業化，並以此影響消費者的行爲。

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.

英國倫敦大學皇家霍洛威學院的阿蘭-布拉德肖博士說：“節日時播放的廣告歌曲， 是爲了改善消費者的心情而強行地灌輸給消費者的。這會影響他們對時間和所買產品的感覺。換句話說，這是一種用你幾乎都不知道的方式來操縱你的購物習慣。”

“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.”

“很多時候，我們都被告知，我們有選擇去哪裏購物的自由，但是在聖誕節期間，到處都在使用這種背景音樂，我們選擇的自由消失了。”

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.

布拉德肖博士和哥倫比亞大學的莫瑞斯-霍爾布魯克對這一現象進行了研究，發現零售商們經常在商店裏“放慢節奏”播放音樂來讓顧客放鬆，這樣能更容易地對顧客的行爲進行控制。

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.

人們認爲，放慢商品裏播放音樂的節奏能讓顧客認爲才過了一小會兒時間，從而花更多的時間仔細查看貨架上的商品。

Some providers of background music have been known to promote their services by claiming they can boost profits by controlling the behaviour of customers.

一些背景音樂的提供商說，他們可以通過控制顧客的行爲來提高利潤，從而提升他們的服務。

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.

布拉德肖博士說，常見的一種做法是選一個當前流行的歌曲並錄製樂器版本，這樣可以在一天的不同時段減速或加速播放，從而用不同的方式來影響用戶的行爲。

"I think you can see a real intention on the part of shop managers to use Christmas music to inflence their customers," he added.

他又補充道：“我認爲，商店的管理者想通過聖誕音樂來影響消費者的這一意圖很明顯。”

“Not only is this bad for musicians and the dignity of their work, representing a triumph of commercial greed over artistic creativity, but it can have negative social implications”.

“這不僅對音樂家來說是件壞事兒，有損他們工作的尊嚴，表示商業的貪婪性勝過了藝術的創造性， 而且對社會也有負面影響。”

Background music is often classed as "Muzak" in recognition of the Seattle-based company which began producing its soft-sounding melodies in the 1930s.

背景音樂通常歸類於“米尤扎克”，這個名字是用來表彰西雅圖的一家公司在20世紀30年代所開始創造的軟音樂旋律。