Mozart Effect

Allisa Quart wrote an article detailing the Mozart effect, and the business spawned from the idea. If you are unfamiliar with the Mozart effect, it is a supposed effect which stipulates that listening to Mozart increases the increases the short-term spatial thinking which people have come to believe means you will become smarter. This effect is based off research done in 1993 by Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher. Their research has lead to a giant phenomenon of products aimed to make babies smarter. There is a multi-million dollar business in selling parents these products which are supposed to give the parents children a better chance at life. This seems like quite a massive industry for having such a loose foundation. The results of Shaw and Rauschers research have never been replicated even after numerous attempts by various PhDs to reproduce the results. It seems what is really is going on here is businessmen doing questionable things. This whole industry appears to prey on the fears of parents. Every parent wants a good life for their child. A better life than they had, so of course people will spend money to try and give their kids that chance. This business is a blatant exploit of the fears of decent parents. It seems a business like this is something which needs to have light shed upon it. Parents are too easy a thing to manipulate when it comes to their kids. This is completely understandable. The blame parents have, for not doing extensive research to find out the validity of the Mozart Effect, is minuscule in comparison to the blame the companies need to get. Although, they can possibly be without full blame because the research is there. Most of the companies would probably do the research to check the validity of their product before marketing it in mass. They would find out that the research has never been reconfirmed. Although they might never care because they knew parents would buy their products until Mozart effect was proven wrong. The businesses are exploiting the fears of loving parents, and this puts them in a shameful light.