Why Bosses Should Play Happy Songs

                Listening to “Happy” at work could make you happy! A study has found that exposure to happy music has capability to make the workplace more cooperative and supportive. Researchers conducted two studies to test the effect of different types of music on the cooperative behavior of individuals. For each study, participants were grouped into teams of three.  Each team member was given multiple opportunities to either contribute to the team’s value using tokens or keep the tokens for personal use. When happy, upbeat music was played, team members were more likely to contribute to the group’s value. However, when unpleasant music was played, participants were more likely to keep tokens for themselves. When happy, upbeat songs were played, researchers found contribution levels to public good were one-third higher compared to the less pleasant music. When they conducted a second experiment testing how people react when no music is played, results were same. Music is a pervasive part of much of our daily lives, whether we consciously notice it or not. Music might melt into the background in places like supermarket or gyms and it’s very prominent in places of worship or presidential conventions. People seem more likely to get into sync with each other if they’re listening to music that has a steady beat to it. The researchers suggested that managers should consider not only customer experience but also workers’ choices when picking the day’s music.