Does the Tempo of Music Impact Human Behavior Behind the Wheel?

OBJECTIVE: Assess the influence of background music tempo on driving performance. BACKGROUND: Music with a fast tempo is known to increase the level of arousal, whereas the reverse is observed for slow music. The relationship between driving performance and level of arousal was expected to take the form of an inverted U-curve. METHOD: Three experiments were undertaken to manipulate the musical background during driving. In Experiment 1, the driver's preferred music track played at its original and modified (plus or minus 30%) tempo were used together with the simple ticking of a metronome. In Experiment 2, music tracks of different tempos were played during driving. In Experiment 3, music tracks were categorized as arousing or relaxing based on the associated perceived level of arousal. RESULTS: Listening to music tended to influence drivers' performances in a car-following task by improving coherence and gain adjustments relative to the followed vehicle but simultaneously shortened the intervehicular time. Although the tempo of the music per se did not directly affect driving behavior, arousing music tracks improved drivers' adjustments to the followed vehicle (Experiment 3). CONCLUSION: The tempo of the music listened to behind the wheel was not found to influence driving behaviors. However, arousing music improved drivers' responsiveness to changes in the speed of the followed vehicle. However, this benefit was canceled out by a reduction in the drivers' intervehicle safety margin. APPLICATION: Listening to arousing music while driving cannot be considered to improve road safety, at least in a car-following task without attentional impairments.