Author: Scotty Hendricks / Source: Big Think
- It’s that time of year again, when we start hearing Christmas music at every store we go to.
- Studies show that hearing Christmas songs too many times increases stress.
- Maybe wait a few weeks before you start playing “Frosty The Snowman” everywhere you go, if you value your sanity.
We’ve all heard it, the endless stream of Christmas music on the radio, in the mall, and on street corners that starts ever earlier and doesn’t end until December 26th. Some love it, others loathe it, but escape is all but impossible either way. Rarely do we ask though, why do we play as much Christmas music as we do? After all, department stores rarely loop songs for other holidays in the same way as they do for Christmas.
There is both method and madness here, but mostly madness.
Hearing too much Christmas music is officially bad for you. The constant barrage of music that starts in November and intensifies until Christmas starts out making people happy, but slowly becomes more and more grating to people as they hear the same songs for the umpteenth time. After a certain point, hearing the music stresses people out. It is particularly bad for people working in sales, who have to learn to tune the music out if they want to function.
The phenomenon behind this is called the “mere exposure” effect. It causes us to like things that…
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