“…A stimulus or stimulus message perceived as realistic and credible encourages participants to process the information more deeply, which, in turn, leads to better memory performance (e.g., Atkins, 1983; Huston et al, 1995; Pouliot & Cowen, 2007; Slater & Rouner, 1996). When it comes to background music, the deliberate use of an emotionalizing, and thus subjective, feature in media formats that are meant to be realistic and objective representations of “real” events and persons, places, or topics (Have, 2010; Moormann, 2010; Rogers, 2015) might lead to the format being perceived as less credible (e.g., Grabe et al, 2000; Schultheiss & Jenzowsky, 2000). When specifically asked about the use of background music in documentaries, the dominant attitude of regular viewers has been found to be that music is manipulative and “coloring reality” (Have, 2010, p. 51).…”