Sound Matters: An Experimental Study of Vocal Performance and Economic Behaviour

Abstract Can subtle differences in vocal performance influence economic decision-making? This question has renewed relevance in a digital landscape shaped by audio-driven persuasion, from short-form videos to synthetic voices in marketing. One of the earliest studies using music as a stimulus in economic games is Oxoby (2009), who employed an ultimatum game to compare AC/DC songs featuring different vocalists. We replicate and extend this design by holding lyrics and instrumentation constant, using the same song performed by both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. While we find no consistent effect across all treatments, results for one comparison suggest that vocals may influence decision efficiency, as reflected in participants’ minimum acceptable offers and final payouts. In addition, exploratory acoustic analysis of the vocal tracks highlights measurable differences in performance features, such as loudness, key and timbre. These findings point to the underexplored role of vocal cues in shaping judgement, and they raise important questions for future research in an era of customisable voices generated by artificial intelligence.