“"Empathy is most often thought of in the context of social interactions, but there are many other forms of social communication, including music," Tabak said. "Music can convey meaning and emotion and also elicit emotional responses, but the mechanisms responsible for its emotional power are poorly understood."

Tabak and his colleagues wanted to test their theory about empathy and music. For the purposes of this study, they measured the ability to correctly understand others' thoughts and feelings (empathic accuracy) and the extent to which one feels the emotions that another feels (affect sharing).

"We thought it would be interesting to study whether people who more accurately understand others' thoughts and feelings might also be more accurate in understanding what musicians are intending to convey through music," Tabak said. "Similarly, we wanted to know whether people who tend to feel the emotions that others are experiencing also tend to feel the emotions conveyed through music."

The initial set of findings found support for both hypotheses. In particular, the results suggest that empathic accuracy as a skill extends beyond interpersonal interactions into music. Researchers hope these results will provide a foundation for future studies regarding the impact active, engaged music listening may have on improving social cognition.

Tabak and Wallmark believe that the study provides tentative support for the theory that music is first and foremost a social behavior that evolved to help individuals connect with others and better understand and manage their social environment.

My Takeaways From This Article

1. In an interesting article and research study it was shown that there was an association between feelings of empathy and music as it was shown that appreciators of music such as musicians and regular listeners were shown to be more empathetic according to a test that asked participants to correctly guess and decipher someone’s else's emotions.

2. This article serves to bolster the connection between music and emotion as music is a very emotionally involved aspect of life which can help us process emotions and even put words to help us describe what we’re feeling.

3. Additionally there seems to be an interesting aspect of melodies and the way notes are arranged that elicits an emotional response. Take for example a minor whose tune usually carries out a sad and mellow tune compared to major keys which usually express joy and giddiness. It’s a super interesting field and there are a lot of implications for the research.

Full article is here!

What are your takeaways from your article? Do you feel as if there is a strong connection between music and emotion?

#Music #Empathy #Emotions