Managers often use music as a marketing tool. In the current research, we found that music pitch can influence consumers’ healthy choices. Specifically, higher-pitched music can boost healthier choices.

1. From: Huang and Labroo (2020)
Cueing Morality: The Effect of High-Pitched
Music on Healthy Choice
High-pitched music promotes healthy choices.

2. From: Huang and Labroo (2020)
Research Summary
 Managers often use music as a marketing tool.
- In advertising, music intensifies emotions.
- In service settings, slow music boosts relaxation while classical music is associated with sophistication.
 What we found in this paper:
- Music pitch can influence consumers’ healthy choices.
- Specifically, higher-pitched music can boost healthier choices.
- This is because listening to higher- (vs. lower-) pitched music can cue morality, which in turn promotes “good”
behaviors.

3. From: Huang and Labroo (2020)
Example Study
 Participants listened to a high- or low-pitched version of
a music clip. Then, they made 4 choices between
healthy and unhealthy options (e.g., apple chips vs.
potato chips; movie theater gift card vs. fitness club gift
card).
- We coded healthy choice as 1 and unhealthy choice as 0.
- A healthy choice index was formed by summing scores for 4 choices (range: 0-
4)
 Results
- Participants in the high (vs. low) pitch condition chose more healthy options.
1.66
1.24
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
Choice of Healthy Options as a Function of
Music Pitch
High Pitch Low Pitch

4. From: Huang and Labroo (2020)
Key Findings
 Participants exposed to high- (vs. low- or normal-) pitched music are more
likely to make healthy choices (i.e., fewer calories, more healthful)
 High pitch increases the salience of morality thoughts and such relationship
underlies the link between pitch and healthy choice.

5. From: Huang and Labroo (2020)
Key Takeaways
 Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants could play high-pitched music to encourage
healthier choices.
 Marketers can design ad appeals to more effectively promote healthy products.
- For example, marketers might consider choosing higher-pitched songs as background music when promoting
healthy products (e.g., vitamins).
- Our findings also suggest an easy additional nudge for policy makers aiming to promote healthy choices through
marketing actions (e.g., playing high-pitched background music in campaigns to curb obesity).