Psychology Archipelago

The Psychology of Music

Almost everyone listens to music, whether that’s at the gym, at home, or at work. As most of us have experienced, music has the power to change how we feel for the better. But why and how does music change us?

There seems to be three main reasons to listen to music: to change how we feel, achieve self-awareness, or engage in social bonding, with a particular emphasis on the first two. 

Studies confirm most of our subjective experiences that our moods change depending on the music, particularly depending on changes in basic musical motifs. Listening or singing to music seems to lower stress, being associated with lowered cortisol levels. Chronic stress has been shown to have a suppressant effect on the immune system, leading to the surprising result that engaging in music seems to activate our immune system. This means that listening to music might even have a significant positive impact on physical health, not just mental health.

Many of us listen to music while we work, something that seems to be supported by the scientific literature. Music taps into our dopaminergic reward system. Although dopamine is often called the “feel-good” hormone, it really is the source of motivation and drive to engage in the outside world. This is often experienced when working out. When we are tired, a song can often come up and re-energize us, motivating us to try harder. Tempo seems to be a large component of this, with a study finding that people worked out harder with sped-up music, even enjoying the workout more.

The dopaminergic reward system is also engaged in reinforcement learning. This system predicts the outcomes of our actions, where learning is done by modifying our behavior to reduce prediction errors over time. By activating this system, music seems to lead to improvements in processing speed and memory.

Another possible result of activating this system is the inhibition of pain, something that is supported by the literature citing dopamine’s pain suppressing effects. 
In fact, music can even be used in therapy, known as Music therapy. This can be particularly effective for those who face barriers in verbal expression. It has been shown to be effective in those with schizophrenia and depression. In fact, a review from 2013 showed that Music therapy, while showing benefits as a supplement to traditional therapy, may be even more effective by itself than standard psychotherapy.

Music seems so universal even some animals seem to have some musical ability. While surprisingly rare, there are a few animals that can keep a beat, such as parrots. A study in pigs found many of the same benefits of music as in humans, such as reduced stress and enhanced immune responses. While cats don’t seem to particularly respond to human music, when composing music specifically for them, there seems to be a significant positive response. This can be done by including pitch ranges that are used more by cats, and tempos that they are more used to. 

However, there are still some people who simply don’t enjoy music, a condition known as musical anhedonia, affecting around 5% of the population. These people seem to have a disconnection between cortical regions for processing sound and subcortical regions related to reward. Given the universality of music, many people consider this to be weird, even a sign of untrustworthiness.
Parrots are one of the few species that can learn and replicate complicated vocal patterns like humans, a possible explanation of their ability to keep a beat. 
But why should we? Music is just a bunch of sounds after all. 

Evolutionarily, some argue that music making is similar to a peacock’s tail, a display that we are strong and healthy enough to engage in such luxuries. Others have argued for the benefits to social and emotional communication, particularly in animals like humans who primarily engage in vocal communication. This might have helped bond people to form more cohesive and effective groups, similar to the function of stories. It may have also been an advantage during child rearing, where the mother could comfort the child without the necessity of physical touch. 

In any case, music demonstrates the power of the relationship between mind and matter. Music has the power to bring us together, change how we feel, or even change us physically. Inherent in the multi-layered patterns of music is meaning, an analogous structure to the patterns of the world. As Nietzsche said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”