Nighttime Walking with Music: Does Music Mediate the Influence of Personal Distress on Perceived Safety?

Abstract

There is growing interest in identifying the environmental factors that contribute to individuals’ perceptions of safety and sense of well-being in public spaces. As such, this study examined how music listening during nighttime walking influenced female university students’ psychological state and perceptions of their campus. A total of 178 female university students with a mean age of 23.0 years participated in this study. One group of 78 students listened to prerecorded music while walking across their campus at night, while the other 100 students did not listen to music during nighttime walking. Immediately following their nighttime walking, participants were asked to rate their psychological state, perceptions on the safety of their campus, and the music (only for the music-listening group). For the non-music-listening group, significant correlations were found between the perceived safety of the campus and psychological states (both anxiety and psychological distress); the correlations were not significant in the music-listening group. The results indicate that music can mediate psychological states, supporting the proactive use of music as a psychological resource for coping with their perceptions of adverse environments. Given the limitations of this preliminary study, further studies with controlled music listening conditions, type of music, and environmental issues are suggested.