River Richart L&S Social Sciences
Auditorium: Political Persuasion via Music and Its Lyrical Content
As the most available and popular form of entertainment, music plays a key role in society. Long has it acted as a forum for political discourse, but little is known about how its content may facilitate political belief change. This project seeks to understand this connection further by asking: How effectively do listeners of a political song receive its political message? Are listeners persuaded by the song’s message? What are some of the conditions that make a song successful to these ends? I will develop and employ an online survey experiment where subjects listen to a randomly assigned song. There will be four songs employed across two genres, with one song of each genre being political and one of each being non-political. Subjects may or may not receive the lyrics of the song as it is played. I hypothesize that the presence of lyrics will increase engagement with lyrical content and the effectiveness of the lyrical message, and a more favorable genre will increase the persuasive quality of the music and lyrics. I hope to contribute key insights into a potentially important domain of political persuasion that has yet to draw significant attention in political science.
Message To Sponsor
To the various donors that supported me throughout this summer, I am beyond grateful for your generosity. Words alone could not express my gratitude, but I hope this may be enough to communicate at least a fraction of my sentiment. Through this experience, I have embarked upon numerous journeys of growth. Your support has provided me with the necessary room for intense studying and self-reflection. I have no doubt that I will complete this project and my senior year with personal and academic insights that would have never been possible without your help.