The influence of music on self-paced fitness consumers' perceived motivational qualities and optimal level of emotional state and satisfaction with exercise experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of motivational qualities of music elicited by two primary types of music sources (i.e., self-selected music and facility-selected music) on consumer emotional and cognitive responses in a fitness facility environment. The concept of motivational qualities of music was aligned with Mehrabian and Russell's stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory. A survey was administered to self-paced fitness customers (n = 183) who were exposed to either type of music in a natural field experiment setting. SEM was utilised for hypothesis evaluation. The three hypotheses were confirmed: that SSM provides a greater degree of motivation for fitness facility customers than FSM; that higher perception of motivational qualities of music led to greater arousal and pleasure, and that the greater their pleasure and arousal, the greater their satisfaction with their exercise experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]