# An Experimental Study on the Influence of Soundscapes on People's Behaviour in an Open Public Space
## 4 Discussion and Conclusions  
An experiment based on covert behavioural observations was performed in a typical open public space in Sheffield, mainly used as a connection between different University buildings. Three musical excerpts (and a control condition with no music) were reproduced cyclically to test whether there is an effect of background music on the number of persons stopping in the urban space and if added sounds could affect people's duration of stay in the investigated area. Overall, the experiment reported in this paper led to two main conclusions:  
* the presence of music did not affect the number of subjects stopping by the observed area; thus, the manipulation of the sound environment had no power to influence people's choice about stopping or not in the space;
* the presence of background music influenced people's mean duration of stay in the public space, with added sound (Classical and Ambient music in the investigated case) implying a longer duration of stay than the one recorded in the control (no music) condition. The observation site considered in this research is a space with apparently no specific function other than transit; i.e., people do not \"go there\" as a destination. It can be considered as a place where people \"stop for a moment\" on their route from one point to another, which would justify the lack of an overall effect of music on people's decision to stop or go. Within the framework of this study, it was assumed that the Duration of stay variable could be used as a proxy for a measure of perceived safety and relaxation. That is, if people decide to stay longer in an apparently unattractive place, to some extent, it can be implied that they feel safe and relaxed there [6]. This is connected to the ongoing debate about outcomes and preference in soundscape studies. [PERSON] et al. [12] suggested that people's preferred outcome with respect to the acoustic environment is context-dependent. They reported a broad spectrum of soundscape outcomes, which are likely to be related to different soundscape appreciation and preference in different contexts. For example, the desired soundscape of urban parks might be assessed against calmness or restorativeness criteria (e.g., [34]), while for downtown or commercial environments, liveliness and excitement dimensions might provide more useful insights into the soundscape assessment of such places [16]. Thus, it was considered that perceptual dimensions related to safety, sense of control, or relaxation might be more relevant for the investigated context. The outcomes of this research could be a potential complement to the existing Masterplan proposal based on traditional urban renewal practices [15]; sound as well as light or green features should be an actual tool within the broader framework of urban planning and design policies. There are of course some limitations, which could not be controlled for. For instance, during the experimental sessions, it was not possible to precisely monitor the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the observation area. Thus, in spite of the efforts to achieve a homogenous sound field during the reproduction of the stimuli, it is likely that people were exposed to slightly different sound levels, depending on where they were stopping. However, strictly controlled SNR conditions might only be achieved in laboratory experiments, the ecological validity of which has been a topic long debated in soundscape research with no clear consensus so far (e.g., [35]). Furthermore, there might have been other confounding factors affecting the duration of stay in the observation area (e.g., personal attitudes, music preference, etc.). However, given the nature of this study (i.e., covert observational research), such information was not to be sought from observed participants (e.g., through questionnaires) in order to not bias the main investigated variable.