The finding also fits with research into how music affects our performance outside the lab. According to one 2019 review of the evidence, there has been very little objective, scientific research into how music affects our ability to work – and in those few studies that do exist, it doesn’t seem to be affecting our productivity directly.

For example, one 1995 study found that when workers at a large retail organisation were allowed to listen to personal stereos for four weeks, their performance improved significantly – entering more accounts per hour, for example – in comparison to a group of workers who were given no such privilege.

However, if the music was providing a direct cognitive boost, you would expect the type they listened to and the length of time they spent listening to be important. But this wasn’t the case – their performance improved equally, regardless of how many hours they spent with their stereo or whether they played Mozart or Eminem.

The researchers looked for links with a range of other factors, such as their job satisfaction. But in the end, the only factor that explained the improvements in productivity in the music group was how relaxed they felt. The researchers concluded that this was responsible for the surge, and not the music per se.

The enjoyment factor might also explain why, in a multitude of experiments conducted over nearly a century, many employees have consistently claimed that music improves their productivity – and their employers have confidently agreed with them. But when you actually measure this objectively, the evidence that music helps us to work is extremely murky.

Skewed perception?

In fact, some scientists think that music doesn’t really help us at all. Instead, it’s possible that we view the ability to listen to music as a gift from our employers, so we convince ourselves that we are working harder in return (though this might not actually be the case). It’s been suggested that this is why employees can react badly to having music taken away – these workers feel that they have already upheld their side of the bargain, and resent having the reward snatched from them.

And as we all know intuitively, in some contexts – such as during particularly complex tasks – music is actively detrimental. This is especially true for tasks which place more of a burden on our working memories, such as problem solving, and music which is less predictable or familiar, and therefore more cognitively demanding, like jazz.

There hasn’t been much research on this in the workplace, but one study found that the reading-comprehension and maths scores of undergraduate students were significantly worse when they completed them to music. It was especially harmful for those whose working memories weren’t as good to begin with.