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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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
Some providers of background music have been known to promote their services by claiming they can boost profits by controlling the behaviour of customers.
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.
Background music is often classed as "Muzak" in recognition of the Seattle-based company which began producing its soft-sounding melodies in the 1930s.
(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
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学者警告说，圣诞节期间商店里不断循环播放的像《圣诞节我只要你》这样的圣诞歌曲不但让我们情绪高亢，而且还让我们花钱更大手大脚。
也许重复播放《铃儿响叮当》这种歌竟是圣诞购物恶梦的罪魁听上去很无辜，但是这些圣诞歌曲确实对于提升顾客的购物欲能产生更为微妙的影响力。
专家说，背景音乐，俗称Muzak，可以被市场营销人员用来向消费者施加圣诞节商业化等文化影响力并影响他们的行为。
伦敦大学皇家霍洛威学院的阿兰•布拉德肖博士说：“商店强迫圣诞购物者听这些喜庆歌曲，从而改变他们的心情，影响他们的时间观念和他们购买的产品种类。换而言之，就是试图用你几乎察觉不到的方式来操纵你的购物习惯。
“我们通常被告知我们有自由选择我们想去的购物场所，但是圣诞节期间，无处不在连续循环播放圣诞音乐，我们的自由选择权也就消失了。”
布拉德肖博士和哥伦比亚大学的莫里斯•B•霍尔布鲁克教授仔细观察了这一现象后发现，零售商经常会把店里播放的音乐“通俗化”来让顾客放松，这意味着能更容易控制他们的行为。
据认为，放慢商店里的音乐节奏能让顾客误以为时间过得更慢，这样顾客可能就会花更多时间来仔细查看货架上的商品。
据悉，一些背景音乐的提供商曾这样宣传他们的服务，声称他们能通过控制顾客的行为来促进利润增长。
布拉德肖博士说，一个常见的诀窍是把当前热门的一首歌曲拿来录制器乐版，可以在一天当中的不同时段放慢或加快音乐节奏，从而对行为产生不同影响。
背景音乐通常被归为Muzak，这是为了纪念20世纪30年代开始制作这种柔和悦耳音乐的一家名为Muzak的西雅图公司。
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（中国日报网英语点津 陈丹妮 编辑：Julie）
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