Trying to be happy all the time can make you unhappy. You should make room for less smiley emotions—like, say, anger.
Or so say the authors of a new paper. Researchers had subjects role-play scenarios like a police officer questioning a subject or a politician lobbying for the passage of a bill. Beforehand, they allowed them to choose clips of music deemed in previous trials to provoke anger (the Sepultura song “Refuse/Resist,” performed by thrash cellists Apocalyptica), happiness (“Estudiante,” by Waldteufel), or something in-between (“Indecision,” by Yo-Yo Ma). They were then asked whether they wanted to listen to the entire song before completing the role-play scenario.
Some subjects were more interested in listening to “Refuse/Resist” when they were going to act out a confrontational scenario. Those same people also scored higher on well-being indicators, while those who chose the happy ditty pre-argument scored less well. The researchers argue that those who wanted to get revved up before throwing down are better at accessing useful emotions.
This doesn’t mean that anger, as a rule, is worthwhile. Lots of research has found that people who experience more pleasant emotions are better off in the long run. But in certain situations it seems that being able to locate your inner death-metal rocker is beneficial.
It’s OK to feel angry right now. It’s not OK to be angry all the time.
The study wasn’t about music, per se—it was using those particular songs as a way to understand how people make use of emotion. But it fits with a lot of intriguing recent laboratory research involving music. The same authors published a study showing that people who are getting ready to play video games that involved avoiding threats prefer to listen to fear-inducing music.
Another study found that people in sad moods didn’t like happy music. Also, people who are more introverted and yet “open to experience” tend to like sad songs.
But happy songs have their uses. In one study, subjects completed a computer task and were then told (falsely) that they had failed. Some then listened to positive music while a control group didn’t listen to anything. Those who listened to upbeat tunes felt more hopeful, at least in the short term.
Music also affects your driving, though it’s unclear whether for good or ill. A study found that respiration rates were “lower during music listening compared to rides without music,” lending support to the idea that having the stereo on could make you calmer and therefore, presumably, a better driver.
Though maybe not. A study of 1,780 British drivers asked what kind of music people listened to in their cars, and then matched that data with lists of those same people’s insurance claims. For younger drivers, up-tempo dance/house music seemed to be playing more often during accidents, while those listening to indie rock seemed to get in fewer fender benders.
The authors acknowledge that the results aren’t definitive—turning on Death Cab for Cutie doesn’t necessarily mean you’re safer on the road. Though they do conclude that there is some relationship between genre of music and likelihood of accidents.
There also seemed to be a correlation between having no reported accidents and a preference for silence.
(The anger study is titled “Should People Pursue Feelings That Feel Good or Feelings That Do Good? Emotional Preferences and Well-Being,” and it was published in the journal Emotion. The authors are Maya Tamir and Brett Q. Ford. Here is the abstract. Apocalyptica is described on its Web site as a “Finnish orchestral rock band.”)
