Abstract
This study examines whether background music gives young Japanese adults a more favorable impression of conversation partners of the opposite sex for the first meeting during conversation for konkatsu. A total of 32 students in their teens and twenties (16 males and 16 females) participated in the experiment. The two conditions were as follows: the ‘with-music’ condition, where BGM was played during a 20-minute conversation, and the ‘no-music’ condition, where BGM was absent. The participants were divided into eight small groups, consisting of two males and two females each. Four other students (two males and two females) participated in pairs (two couples) in each group as the target conversation partners (called ‘guests’ here). The participants rated their impressions of the guests of the opposite sex before and after the conversation. The guests were instructed to keep the conversation smooth and amicable. The results showed that irrespective of the presence of background music, face-to-face conversation between young males and females led to a change in their impression of their partner and created intimacy between them. The biggest difference between the no-music and with-music conditions is the point that music facilitated the feelings of love for the partner of the opposite sex.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.