Abstract
There is growing interest in identifying the environmental factors that contribute to individuals’ perceptions of safety and sense of well-being in public spaces. As such, this study examined how music listening during nighttime walking influenced female university students’ psychological state and perceptions of their campus. A total of 178 female university students with a mean age of 23.0 years participated in this study. One group of 78 students listened to prerecorded music while walking across their campus at night, while the other 100 students did not listen to music during nighttime walking. Immediately following their nighttime walking, participants were asked to rate their psychological state, perceptions on the safety of their campus, and the music (only for the music-listening group). For the non-music-listening group, significant correlations were found between the perceived safety of the campus and psychological states (both anxiety and psychological distress); the correlations were not significant in the music-listening group. The results indicate that music can mediate psychological states, supporting the proactive use of music as a psychological resource for coping with their perceptions of adverse environments. Given the limitations of this preliminary study, further studies with controlled music listening conditions, type of music, and environmental issues are suggested.
Highlights
Research on music-induced changes in the psychological state of listeners supports the use of environmental music, including background music, to influence people’s mood and behavior [1]
This study aimed to investigate whether the use of music could be an effective component of environmental design of university campuses
In Korea, there has been increasing attention paid to CPTED for designing and improving campus environments
Summary
Research on music-induced changes in the psychological state of listeners supports the use of environmental music, including background music, to influence people’s mood and behavior [1]. While environmental music can contribute to a pleasant atmosphere and maintain or elicit desired emotional responses from users of those spaces [5], it can impact physiological states [6]. Background music has been used in medical settings to stabilize patients’ physiological responses (e.g., heartbeat, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and cortisol levels) that impact recovery from illness [7,8]. Specific attributes of background music (e.g., musical elements that induce positive mood or relaxation and music preference) have been reported to divert listeners’ attention away from the unpleasant features of their internal and external environment and to regulate listeners’ emotions [4]. One emerging area of study involves the use of environmental music to deter criminal or antisocial behavior and to facilitate users’ perceptions of safety [9]
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