The Soundtrack of Decision Making
Does the background hum of a trading floor influence the rationality of the trader? This was the central question behind the ambitious “Auditory Utility Project,” conducted over the mid-semester break by the Department of Behavioural Economics in collaboration with the School of Sonic Arts.
Utilising the newly renovated sound-isolated chambers at 7 Inverlochy Place, researchers recruited 60 undergraduate volunteers to participate in a series of continuous double-auction asset markets. The students traded real monetary value (tokenised) via the z-Tree economic software, while being subjected to four distinct sonic environments designed by the composition faculty.
Experimental Design: From Bach to Brown Noise
The study aimed to measure “Risk Sensitivity” and “Bid-Ask Spreads” under the following conditions:
- Control: Absolute silence (Ambient noise floor <25dB).
- Structured Harmony: J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Baroque regularity).
- Stochastic Noise: Brown Noise (simulating distant traffic or ocean rumble).
- Atonal Dissonance: A generative soundscape featuring unresolved tritones and irregular rhythmic bursts (Simulated stress).
Participants were wired with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors to monitor physiological stress levels correlating with their trading behaviour.
The “Mozart Myth” Debunked (Again)
Dr. Percival Thorne, observing from the control room, noted that the initial hypothesis—that classical music would induce “calm rationality”—proved statistically insignificant.
“The data showed a null result for the Bach condition,” Dr. Thorne stated in the preliminary briefing. “Students trading to Baroque counterpoint were no more efficient than those trading in silence. The ‘Mozart Effect’ remains, in our specific context, a stubborn myth. If anything, the complexity of the counterpoint acted as a minor cognitive load, slightly slowing down reaction times.”
The “Tritone” Anomaly
The experiment took an unexpected turn during the fourth condition (Atonal Dissonance). The soundscape, designed to mimic the psychoacoustic properties of an alarm but at a subconscious volume, triggered a market failure.
Within 12 minutes of the atonal soundscape commencing, trading volume plummeted by 84%. The biometric data revealed a spike in cortisol-related stress responses, but surprisingly, this did not lead to “panic selling” as predicted. Instead, it led to “hoarding.”
“Subjected to auditory dissonance, the students essentially went on strike,” explained Ms. Yuna Kim, lead analyst on the project. “Risk aversion became absolute. Participants refused to buy or sell assets, preferring to hold cash even when arbitrage opportunities were mathematically obvious. The uncomfortable sound environment seemingly paralyzed their willingness to engage with uncertainty.”
Ethical Intervention
The study was briefly paused on Tuesday afternoon following an intervention by the Parvis Research Ethics Committee. A sub-set of the experiment involving low-frequency infrasound (18Hz) was scrapped after two participants reported mild nausea and dizziness.
“We pushed the acoustic parameters too far,” admitted Dr. Elara Vance of the Music Department. “We intended to simulate the subtle vibration of a busy city office, but the resonance frequency of the testing booth created a standing wave that was physically disorienting. It compromised the economic data, as it is hard to calculate derivative pricing when you are feeling sea-sick.”
Implications for Workspace Design
Despite the hiccups, the findings—published internally this week—have significant implications for the design of financial workspaces. The correlation between acoustic dissonance and market liquidity suggests that the “noise” of an open-plan office isn’t just a nuisance; it is an economic depressant.
The faculty plans to replicate the study in Semester 2, albeit with stricter volume limits and a ban on infrasound frequencies. For now, the conclusion is clear: silence may be golden, but dissonance is definitively a bear market.
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