Musical atmosphere as a (dis)tractive facet of user interfaces: An experiment on sustainable consumption decisions in eCommerce

User interfaces are increasingly multimodal in nature. Their design is moving beyond just primarily considering visuality-related aspects to considering the rich and complex effects of other facets of user interfaces interacting with different senses of users. Music and other atmosphere-altering facets of interfaces are increasingly considered to hold potential to affect users’ actions and decision-making. While music is associated with both more impulsive and less impulsive decision-making in general, it may also affect the sustainability of consumption choices. Therefore, in this study we investigate the supporting/distracting effects of musical atmosphere as a facet of user interface on sustainable decision-making in the context of eCommerce. We conducted four online experiments (11 groups, 462 valid samples) and one focus group interview-discussion. The results show that fast music tempo (compared to no music or slow music tempo) had a positive effect on willingness to purchase healthy food as mediated by its reduction of negative emotion and consequent increase in positive attitude. People had more positive attitude towards unhealthy food options in the slow music tempo condition. The findings provide novel insights on using non-traditional facets of user interfaces for rational and sustainable decision-making.