A new study has shown that men playing board games like Operation and Risk, become more distracted and are prone to more mistakes when listening to AC/DC than when they listened to classical music.
Men should stay clear of rock music if they want to have a chance at winning board games this festive period, new research suggests.
Music playing seems to have had no effect on women involved in the study, in fact they generally performed better than men at games such as Operation. It’s thought that rock music may cause more auditory stress in men than women, knocking their focus.
Lead researcher Dr Daisy Fancourt reports: “Although this study was all performed in our spare time, it is part of our wider research into the effect of music on performance – particularly in a medical setting such as an operating theatre.
“One of our areas of research is how we can boost performance in many different settings – from rowing in the Olympics to a musical performance.
“This study suggests that for men who are operating or playing a board game, rock music may be a bad idea.”
AC/DC’s longtime drummer Phil Rudd adds: “Now I know why I always lose at Scrabble.”
The study, which was published in the Medical Journal of Australia, asked 352 visitor at a college science festival to play the game, which involves removing various body parts from Cavity Sam – a pretend patient, whose nose flashes and buzzes if the game’s tweezer touch the metal sides of the body.
Men that listened to AC/DC were slower and made more mistakes, compared to listeners of Mozart or the sound of an operating theatre.
Meanwhile, the future of AC/DC remains up in the air after recent departures of Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams this year – though guitarist Angus Young did say recently that he feels “obligated” to keep the band going.