Effects of Music in Advertising: Three Experiments Replicating Single-Exposure Musical Conditioning of Consumer Choice (Gorn 1982) in an Individual Setting

Can single pairing of background music with an advertised product condition choice behavior? Gorn's (1982) demonstration of this effect remains controversial given his unconventional conditioning procedure, unusual data analyses, probably confounded stimuli, and possible demand artifacts. We review prior criticism and conduct three conceptual replications (N = 182, 224, 127) circumventing these problems. Study 1 finds (weak) significant musical conditioning effects for low-involvement products. Study 2 fails to find effects for higher-involvement products. Study 3 showed conditioning of general brand and product evaluations but not of specific brand-related evaluations. Demand artifacts play a minor role; contingency awareness (marginally) amplifies conditioning effects across studies.