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Musical outgroups and the paradox of social bonding
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ScienceDirect Physics of Life Reviews 15 (2015) 99–100 www.elsevier.com/locate/plrev
Comment
Musical outgroups and the paradox of social bonding Comment on “Music, empathy and cultural understanding” by E. Clark et al. Katie Overy Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Received 3 November 2015; accepted 3 November 2015 Available online 10 November 2015 Communicated by L. Perlovsky
Clarke, DeNora and Vuoskoski’s valuable review paper [2] raises the proposition that passive musical listening experiences can increase ‘dispositional empathy’ in individuals and consequently lead to increased positive feeling towards other cultural groups. The challenge of integrating relevant ideas and evidence from neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology and community music is met convincingly, alongside the presentation of empirical data and a new model of empathic music listening. The resulting discussion brings social, motor and emotional aspects of musical behavior to the forefront and sparks a number of ideas and questions. A central tenet of the paper is the idea that musical sound is perceived as a human signal, such that when music triggers an emotional response, this response can lead to empathy and a feeling of social bonding between the listener and perceived musical agent. This concept of musical engagement draws on and is pertinent to a number of highly current research areas in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, including the idea of ‘motor resonance’ with an auditory speech or music signal via the so-called mirror neuron system (e.g. [12,9]) and evidence of common physiological responses to universal features of music, such as tempo [4,13]. The power of a shared musical experience, and in particular synchronized movement, to lead to social cooperation is also increasingly researched and demonstrated with young children [6,1], supporting the idea that music may have a fundamental capacity to increase empathic feeling. Less frequently discussed and researched, is the potential for music to strengthen the kinds of pro-social relationships that form not just ingroups but also outgroups (e.g. [8]). This somewhat paradoxical aspect of musical bonding can be seen particularly during teenage years of emerging social identity and musical preferences [3], but also in the quasi-snobbery that many individuals feel about their non-preferred genres of music, and not least in the aggressive use of national anthems, football chants, military music and political songs (e.g. [11]). Music is often used as a display or indicator of social group, status and strength, and thus, if a musical signal has the capacity to represent human agency, it may sometimes be perceived as aggressive, provocative, distasteful or irritating, rather than pro-social. I thus agree with Clarke, De Nora and Vuoskoski that a key challenge within this emerging area of research is to understand more deeply how music can lead to cultural understanding, and indeed when (cf. [7]), which leads to several important questions. For example, to what extent is ‘mere exposure’ to either familiar or unfamiliar music sufficient to stimulate feelings of human empathy leading to increased cultural understanding? Might active engagement with DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.001. E-mail address: [email protected]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.11.001 1571-0645/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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K. Overy / Physics of Life Reviews 15 (2015) 99–100
the music of an unfamiliar culture be more effective than passive listening, under the right conditions? Might joint participation in an entirely new musical style with members of a cultural outgroup be equally or more effective at leading to empathic understanding? The concepts of similarity, imitation and mimicry, considered here as central to the process and skill of empathy, are also central to musical interaction, usually involving eye contact, turn-taking, leading, following, smiling and laughing. The SAME model of emotional responses to music [10] also endorses imitation, synchronization and shared experience in music intervention approaches. Does engaging in these kinds of structured, imitative musical interactions regularly and with high levels of expertise lead those involved in active music making to have a generally enhanced ‘dispositional empathy’? Does this imply that musicians from across a cultural divide may have a better chance of reaching cultural understanding than those with no prior musical experience or training? It has been demonstrated that adults with a high ‘locus of control’ adopt different tapping synchronization strategies than those with a low ‘locus of control’, suggesting that musicianship skills and personality/social skills can indeed interact [5]. References [1] Cirelli LK, Einarson KM, Trainor LJ. Interpersonal synchrony increases prosocial behavior in infants. Dev Sci 2014;17(6):1003–11. [2] Clarke E, DeNora T, Vuoskoski J. Music, empathy, and cultural understanding. Phys Life Rev 2015;15:61–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.001 [in this issue]. [3] DeNora T. Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. [4] Gomez P, Danuser B. Relationships between musical structure and psychophysiological measures of emotion. Emotion 2007;7(2):377–87. [5] Keller P, Novembre G, Hove MJ. Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination. Philos Trans R Soc B 2014;369:20130394. [6] Kirschner S, Tomasello M. Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evol Hum Behav 2010;31(5):354–64. [7] Lamont A. Responses to Katie Overy’s paper, “Can music really ‘improve’ the mind?”. Psychol Music 1998;26:201–4. [8] Lonsdale AJ, North AC. Musical taste and ingroup favouritism. Group Process Intergroup Relat 2009;12:319–27. [9] Molnar-Szakacs I, Assuied VG, Overy K. Shared affective motion experience (SAME) and creative, interactive music therapy. In: Hargreaves DJ, Miell DE, MacDonald RAR, editors. Musical imaginations. Multidisciplinary perspectives on creativity, performance and perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012. p. 313–31. [10] Overy K, Molnar-Szakacs I. Being together in time: musical experience and the mirror neuron system. Music Percept 2009;36(5):489–504. [11] Rolston. Music and politics in Ireland: the case of loyalism. In: Harrington JP, Mitchel EJ, editors. Politics and performance in contemporary Northern Ireland. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press; 2009. [12] Sammler D, Grosbras M-H, Anwander A, Bestelmeyer PEG, Belin P. Dorsal and ventral pathways for prosody. Curr Biol 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.009. [13] Swaminathan SE, Schellenberg G. Current emotion research in music psychology. Emot Rev 2015;7(2):189–97.
ScienceDirect Physics of Life Reviews 15 (2015) 99–100 www.elsevier.com/locate/plrev
Comment
Musical outgroups and the paradox of social bonding Comment on “Music, empathy and cultural understanding” by E. Clark et al. Katie Overy Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Received 3 November 2015; accepted 3 November 2015 Available online 10 November 2015 Communicated by L. Perlovsky
Clarke, DeNora and Vuoskoski’s valuable review paper [2] raises the proposition that passive musical listening experiences can increase ‘dispositional empathy’ in individuals and consequently lead to increased positive feeling towards other cultural groups. The challenge of integrating relevant ideas and evidence from neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology and community music is met convincingly, alongside the presentation of empirical data and a new model of empathic music listening. The resulting discussion brings social, motor and emotional aspects of musical behavior to the forefront and sparks a number of ideas and questions. A central tenet of the paper is the idea that musical sound is perceived as a human signal, such that when music triggers an emotional response, this response can lead to empathy and a feeling of social bonding between the listener and perceived musical agent. This concept of musical engagement draws on and is pertinent to a number of highly current research areas in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, including the idea of ‘motor resonance’ with an auditory speech or music signal via the so-called mirror neuron system (e.g. [12,9]) and evidence of common physiological responses to universal features of music, such as tempo [4,13]. The power of a shared musical experience, and in particular synchronized movement, to lead to social cooperation is also increasingly researched and demonstrated with young children [6,1], supporting the idea that music may have a fundamental capacity to increase empathic feeling. Less frequently discussed and researched, is the potential for music to strengthen the kinds of pro-social relationships that form not just ingroups but also outgroups (e.g. [8]). This somewhat paradoxical aspect of musical bonding can be seen particularly during teenage years of emerging social identity and musical preferences [3], but also in the quasi-snobbery that many individuals feel about their non-preferred genres of music, and not least in the aggressive use of national anthems, football chants, military music and political songs (e.g. [11]). Music is often used as a display or indicator of social group, status and strength, and thus, if a musical signal has the capacity to represent human agency, it may sometimes be perceived as aggressive, provocative, distasteful or irritating, rather than pro-social. I thus agree with Clarke, De Nora and Vuoskoski that a key challenge within this emerging area of research is to understand more deeply how music can lead to cultural understanding, and indeed when (cf. [7]), which leads to several important questions. For example, to what extent is ‘mere exposure’ to either familiar or unfamiliar music sufficient to stimulate feelings of human empathy leading to increased cultural understanding? Might active engagement with DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.001. E-mail address: [email protected]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.11.001 1571-0645/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
100
K. Overy / Physics of Life Reviews 15 (2015) 99–100
the music of an unfamiliar culture be more effective than passive listening, under the right conditions? Might joint participation in an entirely new musical style with members of a cultural outgroup be equally or more effective at leading to empathic understanding? The concepts of similarity, imitation and mimicry, considered here as central to the process and skill of empathy, are also central to musical interaction, usually involving eye contact, turn-taking, leading, following, smiling and laughing. The SAME model of emotional responses to music [10] also endorses imitation, synchronization and shared experience in music intervention approaches. Does engaging in these kinds of structured, imitative musical interactions regularly and with high levels of expertise lead those involved in active music making to have a generally enhanced ‘dispositional empathy’? Does this imply that musicians from across a cultural divide may have a better chance of reaching cultural understanding than those with no prior musical experience or training? It has been demonstrated that adults with a high ‘locus of control’ adopt different tapping synchronization strategies than those with a low ‘locus of control’, suggesting that musicianship skills and personality/social skills can indeed interact [5]. References [1] Cirelli LK, Einarson KM, Trainor LJ. Interpersonal synchrony increases prosocial behavior in infants. Dev Sci 2014;17(6):1003–11. [2] Clarke E, DeNora T, Vuoskoski J. Music, empathy, and cultural understanding. Phys Life Rev 2015;15:61–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.001 [in this issue]. [3] DeNora T. Music in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. [4] Gomez P, Danuser B. Relationships between musical structure and psychophysiological measures of emotion. Emotion 2007;7(2):377–87. [5] Keller P, Novembre G, Hove MJ. Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination. Philos Trans R Soc B 2014;369:20130394. [6] Kirschner S, Tomasello M. Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evol Hum Behav 2010;31(5):354–64. [7] Lamont A. Responses to Katie Overy’s paper, “Can music really ‘improve’ the mind?”. Psychol Music 1998;26:201–4. [8] Lonsdale AJ, North AC. Musical taste and ingroup favouritism. Group Process Intergroup Relat 2009;12:319–27. [9] Molnar-Szakacs I, Assuied VG, Overy K. Shared affective motion experience (SAME) and creative, interactive music therapy. In: Hargreaves DJ, Miell DE, MacDonald RAR, editors. Musical imaginations. Multidisciplinary perspectives on creativity, performance and perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2012. p. 313–31. [10] Overy K, Molnar-Szakacs I. Being together in time: musical experience and the mirror neuron system. Music Percept 2009;36(5):489–504. [11] Rolston. Music and politics in Ireland: the case of loyalism. In: Harrington JP, Mitchel EJ, editors. Politics and performance in contemporary Northern Ireland. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press; 2009. [12] Sammler D, Grosbras M-H, Anwander A, Bestelmeyer PEG, Belin P. Dorsal and ventral pathways for prosody. Curr Biol 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.009. [13] Swaminathan SE, Schellenberg G. Current emotion research in music psychology. Emot Rev 2015;7(2):189–97.