Do music genres affect pain perception? That question was investigated during Lowlands Science 2023, where Julian Schaap (music sociologist at ESHCC) and a team of researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Erasmus MC conducted an experiment among 548 participants. Schaap was a guest last week on ‘De Nacht van...’ (The Night of…) on NPO Radio 1 to talk about the findings of the study, which were published in the Nature’s scientific journal ‘Scientific Reports' last summer.
Suggestions from the past turned upside down
And what turns out? The people who can withstand a pain stimulus the longest are the people who hear music they like. There is a linear relationship between music that is in line with your taste and the perception of pain. ‘You might think that's an open door, but the point is that it doesn't matter what genre you hear. As long as it's music you like. And that does turn past suggestions about the universal efficacy of some genres upside down,’ Julian says. ‘And when people hear a genre of music they do not like, in the worst situations they endure two pain stimuli at once. And so that can also occur in healthcare situations, for example at a doctor's or dentist's office.’
A common assumption is that classical music helps reduce pain, but this often turns out not to be the case. That is only so if you are an enthusiast of classical music yourself. For example, the Mozart effect (the potential stimulating effect of Mozart's music on an unborn baby in the womb, or while studying) is also outdated in this respect. That positive effect only appears when someone actually loves Mozart.
Lowlands study
During the ‘Lowlands study’, conducted by Julian Schaap and Michaël Berghman (Arts and Culture, ESHCC), Femke Vandenberg and Julia Peters (former ESHCC researchers), and Emy van der Valk Bouman and Antonia Becker (Erasmus MC), participants had to fill in their favourite genre of music in a questionnaire, but then listened to a random genre while holding their hand in a bowl of ice water. Based on the data, the team concludes that music genres only have a ‘healing’ effect if they are in line with the taste preferences of the person experiencing pain.
Continued
At Lowlands, participants only heard artists of different genres that were playing at the festival that year. Emy van der Valk Bouman and Antonia Becker are now continuing the experiment in a more clinical situation, in which participants also bring in their own music and even podcasts.
Listen to the interview with Julian Schaap on Radio 1 (Dutch)
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