A Quiet Disquiet: Anxiety and Risk Avoidance due to Nonconscious Auditory Priming

Hearing is our highly sensitive warning system. As a sense, hearing has uniquely evolved to perform this alerting function and is perceptive to subtle ambient cues that are associated with threat. We propose that one aspect of sound that may cue such associations is pitch, such that low-pitch (vs. moderate pitch) background sound nonconsciously primes a threat response resulting in heightened anxiety among consumers. Furthermore, this emotional...