A study conducted by the Society For Personality And Social Psychology suggests that bass heavy music helps listeners feel more confident during interviews and meetings. Researchers played music for a group of subjects, and had them judge how dominant they felt based on a seven-point scale. This allowed them to divide the songs into "high-power" and "low-power" categories. Examples of "high-power" music include 50 Cent's "In Da Club," Queen's "We Will Rock You," and 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready For This" while examples of "low-power" music include Biggie's "Big Poppa," Fatboy Slim's "Because We Can," and Baha Men's "Who Let The Dogs Out?"
From there, researchers played both playlists for test groups and performed a couple of social experiments. For example, subjects who listened to the "high-power" playlist opted to go first in a debate 34% of the time, while those who listened to the "low-power" playlist opted to go first only 20%.
While the researchers believe that people might be preconditioned to associate bass-heavy music with power, they don't have firm answers for why that is. In the meantime, just know that listening to "In Da Club" right before that big interview could have you in the office.
[via NME]
