16. How malls know what songs are playing in our head

Have you ever walked into a mall, hummed a song in your head, and out of sudden they put that exact song on speaker?

I have. Many times. And I thought it’s a life-changing super power that I possessed. Until I found that this happens to many people. Do we all then have shared super power? Is it luck? Perhaps. But I have two scientific theories why this happens.

It could be a simple synchronicity of music exposure between you and the playlist setter. You’re most likely humming the song because you heard it from the top 40 chart. Your subconsciousness picked it up and it got stuck in your brain. So did the mall’s playlist setter. So she puts that song on the playlist and it happens to sync with the one playing in your head.

Another theory is, they might have been playing the song for a while, but only recently did we pay attention. Our mind subconsciously filters out things that are irrelevant to us. Things that are neither eye-catching or familiar to us will not earn a prominent place in our brain. So a yoga studio might have been in front of your office all along. But only when you develop an interest in yoga lately do you notice the studio is there. The same goes with the music in malls.

So it’s not much about luck or psychic after all. But simply timing and probability.