Two researchers provide evidence that music developed as a way to cement social bonds.
August 5, 2013 • By Tom Jacobs
The question of why humans invented music—and continue to be enthralled by it—has long puzzled scholars. While some, including Charles Darwin, have guessed it grew out of a courtship ritual, recent research has focused on its ability to strengthen bonds within a community. Think military marches, or fight songs at a football game.
A newly published paper presents intriguing evidence supporting that hypothesis. Chris Loersch of the University of Colorado and Nathan Arbuckle of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology argue that music developed “as a form of social communication, a tool to pass information about the group’s shared mental state to a number of individuals at once.”
“As it became increasingly adaptive for humans to live in social groups, various biological and psychological mechanisms evolved in order to maintain a group structure,” they write in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. “We hypothesize that human musicality is one of those mechanisms.”
Such a theory is not actually provable, of course, but one can find clues. The researchers describe seven studies in which they demonstrate a connection between the need to belong and the tendency to experience a deep emotional reaction to music.
Singing together appears to inspire spontaneous cooperative and helpful behavior among four-year-olds.
In one study, 112 adults recruited online filled out a series of surveys. One measured their “need to belong,” asking them to agree or disagree with such statements as “If other people don’t seem to accept me, I don’t let it bother me.” A second measured their emotional reactivity by assessing their agreement with such statements as “I get upset easily.”
A third survey measured their emotional and physical reactions to music. They revealed the extent to which they agreed with such statements as “When I listen to music, I can feel it affect my mood” and “When I hear music, my foot starts tapping along with the beat.”
The researchers found their response to music has a “unique predictor” of the need to belong, above and beyond their general emotionality. In short, those who reported a greater need to belong also tended to have more intense involvement with music.
Further reading: http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/the-sounds-that-bind-new-evidence-of-why-we-love-music-63907/
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