Violent Lyrics = Aggressive Listeners? : Effects of Song Lyrics and Tempo on Cognition, Affect, and Self-Reported Arousal

Abstract

Abstract. Research on music has had an impressive impact. For example, the semantic content of lyrics seems to cause associated short-term effects regarding cognition and affect. However, we argue that these effects might have been confounded by other musical parameters related to time, pitch, texture, or voice of the selected songs. This study overcame this methodological problem by using different versions of an experimentally manipulated song. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, 120 university students listened to four versions of a song with violent or prosocial lyrics presented in slow or fast tempo. As predicted by theories of priming, violent lyrics increased aggressive cognitions (word completion test) and aggressive affect (self-reported state anger) in comparison with prosocial lyrics. However, the reverse effects of prosocial lyrics on prosocial cognitions and prosocial affect could not be confirmed. Finally, the tempo of the song did not consistently increase self-reported arousal, and we did not find more extreme effects under conditions of fast tempo as predicted by the arousal-extremity model.