Surf the waves of sound, bury yourself in a wall of noise and just give in to the aural eroticism of music. Why? Because it doesn’t just feel good, it can actually help you become a more actualised individual.
1. Ambient music can boost creativity.
Certain kinds of sounds can make the way you work a lot more effective. According to this study, a moderate noise level increases processing difficulty which promotes abstract processing, leading to higher creativity. Confusing? Yes. Useful? Most definitely.
2. Happy, uplifting music could make you a more generous person.
According to this study, mood can influence the likelihood of a person demonstrating helping behavior, and music can be used to bring about manipulations of mood. The results of their test group found that people were more prone to being generous and expending their energy helping people after listening to happy, positive tunes.
3. Music with ‘prosocial’ lyrics could make you more helpful.
Songs like ‘Is This Love’ by Bob Marley, or ‘Heal The World’ by Michael Jackson, could have a subliminal effect on our behaviour, no matter how cringey they sound. According to this study, the lyrics to these songs could make us more prone to help out our fellow folks.
4. Musicians tend to have better auditory memory and attention, making them better learners.
This study found a pretty heavy correlation between musicians and an enhanced auditory working memory and auditory attention. What this means is, a child who had music training for 2 years could better tell the difference between the words ‘bill’ and ‘pill’.
5. Music can have a range of physical benefits.
According to this study, music can reduce heart rate, blood pressure and anxiety in heart disease patients.
6. Listening to music can make us more accepting of differences and more likely to respect women.
According to this study, listening to music with an integrationist theme can rub off on the listener. A song like ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin, for instance, can make us more open to people different from us, as well as more respectful towards women.
So turn on, tune in and drop out. It’s good for you!