Tuned Out or Dialed In: How Attributions Shape Observer Reactions to Music Listeners at Work

Abstract

Music listening while working is prevalent in contemporary workplaces, with extensive research demonstrating its psychological and behavioral implications. Shifting focus from intra‐individual outcomes, the present research examines the social implications of music listening at work. To do so, we adopt a novel third‐party perspective to investigate how observers perceive and react to music listeners. Building on attribution theory, we argue that music listening is an ambiguous behavior that invites observers to make leisure or productivity attributions, thereby shaping how they perceive and treat music listeners. We hypothesize that observers perceive music listeners (vs. non‐listeners) as less engaged if they attribute the listening to leisure rather than productivity. In turn, these engagement perceptions influence observers’ judgments of the listener's performance and withdrawal, resulting in punitive observer reactions: decreased support and enacted incivility toward the listener. A dyadic field study, an online experiment, and a dyadic field experiment supported our hypotheses. Further analyses and supplemental studies identify antecedents of leisure‐productivity attributions, consider alternative explanations (including possible positive outcomes), and explore likely boundary conditions (e.g., headphone type, generalizability across roles). We advance theory on music at work, observer attributions, and reactions, while highlighting the unintended social costs of this ubiquitous behavior.