Sharks Get Bad Rap When Viewed With Ominous Background Music

Summary: According to researchers, the choice of background music can affect a viewer’s attitude towards sharks.

Source: UCSD.

Scripps-led research team demonstrates that background music affects viewers’ attitudes toward sharks.

In a new study, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego found that the background music in shark documentaries affects viewers’ perceptions of sharks. The researchers suggest that ominous background music could hinder shark conservation efforts.

Scripps scientist Andrew Nosal and a colleague at Harvard University recruited over 2,000 online participants to share their attitudes toward sharks after watching a 60-second video clip of sharks swimming. They compared the results of the participants who watched the clip set to ominous background music to those watching the same video clip set to uplifting background music, or silence.

Participants who viewed the video with ominous background music rated sharks more negatively than those who viewed the clip with uplifting music or no music.

Image shows gray reef sharks.
This photo shows a pair of gray reef sharks patrol the deep outer terrace at Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Brian Zgliczynski.

“Given that nature documentaries are often regarded as objective and authoritative sources of information, it is critical that documentary filmmakers and viewers are aware of how the soundtrack can affect the interpretation of the educational content,” said Nosal, the lead author of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

About this neuroscience research article

Funding: A researcher from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego was a coauthor of the study.

Source: Mario Aguilera – UCSD
Image Source: This NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Brian Zgliczynski.
Original Research: Full open access research for “The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers’ Perceptions of Sharks” by Andrew P. Nosal, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Philip A. Hastings, and Ayelet Gneezy in PLOS ONE. Published online August 3 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159279

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]UCSD. “Sharks Get Bad Rap When Viewed With Ominous Background Music.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 4 August 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/shark-music-neuroscience-4786/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]UCSD. (2016, August 4). Sharks Get Bad Rap When Viewed With Ominous Background Music. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved August 4, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/shark-music-neuroscience-4786/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]UCSD. “Sharks Get Bad Rap When Viewed With Ominous Background Music.” https://neurosciencenews.com/shark-music-neuroscience-4786/ (accessed August 4, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers’ Perceptions of Sharks

Despite the ongoing need for shark conservation and management, prevailing negative sentiments marginalize these animals and legitimize permissive exploitation. These negative attitudes arise from an instinctive, yet exaggerated fear, which is validated and reinforced by disproportionate and sensationalistic news coverage of shark ‘attacks’ and by highlighting shark-on-human violence in popular movies and documentaries. In this study, we investigate another subtler, yet powerful factor that contributes to this fear: the ominous background music that often accompanies shark footage in documentaries. Using three experiments, we show that participants rated sharks more negatively and less positively after viewing a 60-second video clip of swimming sharks set to ominous background music, compared to participants who watched the same video clip set to uplifting background music, or silence. This finding was not an artifact of soundtrack alone because attitudes toward sharks did not differ among participants assigned to audio-only control treatments. This is the first study to demonstrate empirically that the connotative attributes of background music accompanying shark footage affect viewers’ attitudes toward sharks. Given that nature documentaries are often regarded as objective and authoritative sources of information, it is critical that documentary filmmakers and viewers are aware of how the soundtrack can affect the interpretation of the educational content.

“The Effect of Background Music in Shark Documentaries on Viewers’ Perceptions of Sharks” by Andrew P. Nosal, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Philip A. Hastings, and Ayelet Gneezy in PLOS ONE. Published online August 3 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159279

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