Student Presenter(s): Bhavi Doshi, Nehal Beniwal, Pradhyumna Alone, Darshil Ajudia, and Katherine Kingsly
Faculty Mentor: Colleen Kirk
School/College: Management, Manhattan

Music has been an important part of advertisements and has been shown to increase their emotional impact. Background music in commercials contains elements that arouse responses from the target consumers either by a touching advertising message or triggering consumers’ past experiences. Past research has supported the hypothesis that music evokes emotions which increase the likelihood of a product being purchased by consumers. Building on past research, the current study aims to assess the impact advertisements with and without music have on the feeling of being moved, known as kama muta, and if kama muta has any effect on the intent to purchase the product being advertised. The study will be investigated with 200 Mturk participants, in a randomized between-subjects experimental design, who would be administered the Kama Muta Scale, and the Intent to Purchase scale, as well as the Crying Proneness Personality Trait scale, after showing the advertisement. Thus, it would be hypothesized that there would be a difference between the kama muta levels of advertisements with and without music and that higher kama muta would have a higher intent to purchase the product. Keywords: advertisement, music, kama muta, purchase to intent.