A couple of weeks ago I heard my first Christmas song of 2009 on the radio and, love them or hate them, you can’t avoid them at this time of year. It prompted me to have a look at the research into how music influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and in turn our well-being.
The relationship between music and these measurable outcomes is fairly complicated. However, some of the most established research findings demonstrate the link between music and physiological responses. For example, slow, quiet music tends to encourage relaxation and reduce anxiety, and in contrast, stimulating music tends to increase arousal levels which have obvious links to well-being.
Other evidence suggests that music can manipulate our mood. How exactly this works is still not clear, but one of the central ideas from Saarikallio and Erkkila’s work is that music distracts the mind from unpleasant thoughts (other options include entertainment, discharge of emotion and ‘finding solace’). This suggests that sometimes if you feel a bit low, it pays to avoid the temptation to play slow sad music as it is likely to make you feel worse. Instead we should try listening to an uplifting or cheerful song to improve our energy levels and emotional well-being.
On top of some of these general responses to listening to music, there are also powerful individual differences in terms of how we respond to music according to our preferences and the ways in which our life experience has involved music. However, evidence suggests that music can affect our thoughts, feelings and physiological responses whether or not we like the music – think about the way that music is used in films and on TV to create a certain mood. Imagine a film without music.
So how can music be used in the workplace to improve mood and well-being? Certainly one of the best uses is at an individual level, where people might listen to music, e.g. through their MP3 player, for a short while to lift or soothe their mood. This could have an impact on the way to and from work as well – by choosing music that is matched to the kind of challenges you are facing you can create the right psychological state to ensure that you cope effectively. It’s harder to think of practical uses at the organisational or team level. However, finding certain tasks that are not adversely affected by having music on in the background may be worth exploring. Think about how everyone gathers together around Christmas songs in the office at this time of year – it would be great to extend this feeling to encompass other times of year. Of course, music could distract some people from doing their job to the best of their ability, but managed properly it could also unlock new levels of teamworking, performance and well-being.
Entertaining and informative post! I was looking around on the internet for a post about this and this is the first very good 1 I have read.