Sound, Music, Language, and Human Communication: Acoustic Nudges in Sound-Mediated Interaction

Communication is often seen as primarily linguistic, but sound and music act as nonverbal channels guiding behavior in subtle, culturally embedded ways. This pa-per proposes the concept of acoustic nudge to describe sound that encourages or shapes actions without explicit verbal commands. Brown and Levinson [1] explain how indirectness reduces face-threatening acts and resistance; Gibson [2] describes affordances as cues suggesting actions, an idea Norman [3] extends to design. Thaler and Sunstein [4] argue nudges guide behavior without restricting choice, and Schafer [5] highlights that soundscapes carry shared cultural meanings influencing interpre-tation. Drawing on these theories, I examine auditory practices in urban Japan to show how culturally embedded sounds serve as polite, effective behavioral cues. This framework can contribute to soundscape design, human-computer interaction, and user experience.