Looking at the (mis)fortunate of others while listening to music

Abstract

The present study examined whether eye movements when regarding pictures of other people in fortunate (positive) and unfortunate (negative) circumstances are influenced by background music. Sixty-three participants were randomly assigned to three background music conditions (happy music, sad music, or no music) where pairs of negative–positive pictures were shown. Participants’ eye movements were recorded throughout the experiment to assess distinct phases of attentional processes, i.e., initial orienting to, and subsequent engagement with, visual scenes. We found that these attentional processes were not uniformly influenced by the music. The type of background music had no effect on initial visual attention but played a relevant role in guiding subsequent gaze behaviour by maintaining attention in a mood-congruent fashion: sad music enhanced attentional bias to visual images of others in unfortunate circumstances, whereas happy music contributed to longer gazes at images of others in fortunate circumstances. These results support the notion that attention is affected by background music and reflected by gaze behaviour.