Eric W. Dolan, writing for the PsyPost website, outlines research, published in Scientific Reports, suggesting that “the shared experience of live music creates a remarkable physiological bond among audience members, revealing the profound impact of music on the human body.”
In the “passive settings” of symphony concerts, “where listeners are not consciously interacting with one another, the shared experience of the music could lead to a kind of physiological entrainment among audience members,” Dolan writes.
This “interpersonal synchrony,” observed in social interactions such as conversation, “arises generally, in diverse contexts. Here, I have turned to a novel field, the responses to concerts measured in audiences, where we also applied the methods of synchrony research,” says Wolfgang Tschacher, professor emeritus at the University of Bern in Switzerland and author of the study.
Tschacher and his team tested the hypothesis in Berlin concerts, finding that the heart rates, breathing and “skin conductance” of 695 concertgoers “were all significantly synchronized across the audience” during performances.
Dolan’s article:
The Scientific Reports article:
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-67455-2
(via http://artsjournal.com)
Letter V 