A recent study has shown that sharing music listening experiences with others, even virtually, can significantly enhance the pleasure derived from music. This increase in pleasure, in turn, can lead to greater prosocial behavior and improved memory performance. The study, published in iScience, investigated these effects across three experiments conducted online with participants from the United States and France.
Previous research has highlighted the powerful impact of music on human emotions and behaviors. Music can evoke intense pleasure and activate the brain’s reward system, which is linked to prosocial behaviors and improved memory. However, most studies have focused on individual music listening experiences.
The researchers aimed to explore whether sharing the music listening experience with others, even in a simulated online environment, could amplify these positive effects. They wanted to see if the social aspect of music listening could enhance pleasure and subsequently influence social and cognitive outcomes.
“The interest in this topic stems from both experiential situations and scientific inquiries,” explained study authors Federico Curzel of the University of Lyon and Laura Ferreri of the University of Pavia. “In our daily life, when sharing musical experiences as a group (as in concerts), we often experience very strong, almost amplified sensations that contribute to our well-being. This phenomenon seems to get us closer to the others, while also creating memories for it.”
“As an example, think about the phenomenon of ‘songs from balconies’ during the pandemic, which demonstrated how music helped to fulfill our need for social connection, and how this promoted well-being. From an experimental point of view, studies in the field of psychology and neuroscience of music have shown that musical pleasure can be modulated invasively through methods such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (Mas Herrero et al., 2018, Nat Hum Behav) and administration of a dopamine precursor (Ferreri et al., 2019, PNAS).”
“Other studies have shown that social interaction can activate the same brain reward circuits responsible for generating feelings of pleasure (Nummenmaa et al., 2021, COBEHA). Musical pleasure is not only valuable in itself but also has many beneficial outcomes, such as improving memory performance and promoting prosocial behaviors (Ferreri and Rodriguez-Fornells, 2022, Ann NY Acad Sci; Fukui and Toyoshima, 2014, Front. Psychol.).”
“We therefore aimed to demonstrate that it is possible to modulate musical pleasure non-invasively through the social sharing of the musical experience, providing evidence that this could later be employed as a beneficial activity for specific cognitive functions (e.g., memory, social cognitive skills) and contributing to the debate about the role of music in evolution and society (Savage et al., 2021, BBS).”
To explore how shared music listening, even when simulated online, could influence pleasure, prosocial behavior, and memory, the researchers conducted a series of three experiments.
Experiment 1 involved 52 participants from the United States. Participants were asked to listen to pop-rock music excerpts, either their favorite songs or songs selected by the experimenters. They listened under three different conditions: alone (Non-Social), with a small group of virtual listeners (Low-Social), or with a larger group (High-Social). The social presence was simulated by showing a map with pins representing other “participants” who were supposedly listening to the music simultaneously. After each song, participants rated their pleasure and other affective responses such as beauty, interest, valence (happiness or sadness), and familiarity.
Experiment 2 was conducted with 111 participants from France. The procedure was similar to Experiment 1, but it included a broader range of musical genres, including both preferred and non-preferred genres. Participants provided continuous pleasure ratings while listening to the music. After the music task, participants completed prosocial behavior tasks, including adapted versions of the Ultimatum Game and Dictator Game. These tasks measured their willingness to share money with a virtual partner or donate money to a non-profit association.
Experiment 3 included 75 participants from France and focused on classical music. Participants listened to unfamiliar classical music excerpts under two conditions: alone (Non-Social) and with a small group of virtual listeners (Low-Social). After listening to the music, participants completed interference tasks, which were designed to occupy their attention for a short period, and then took a memory test. The memory test assessed their recognition and recollection of the music excerpts.
Across all three experiments, the researchers found that participants reported higher pleasure ratings when they believed they were sharing the music listening experience with others. This effect was most pronounced in the High-Social condition, where participants thought they were listening with a larger group. The study showed that the mere illusion of sharing music with others could significantly enhance the pleasure derived from the music.
“One thing that surprised us was that merely the idea of being connected with someone, without any direct interaction, was enough to modulate the pleasure felt,” Curzel and Ferreri told PsyPost. “Indeed, our participants only had the illusion of listening to the same music simultaneously with others (through different pins on a map).”
In Experiment 2, the researchers found that higher pleasure ratings were associated with increased prosocial behavior in the Ultimatum Game. Participants who experienced more pleasure from the music were more generous in their offers to a virtual partner. However, the Dictator Game, which involved donating money to an association, did not show significant effects related to social sharing or pleasure. This suggests that the social context and the nature of the prosocial task may influence the outcomes.
In Experiment 3, participants who reported higher pleasure from the music also showed better recognition of the music excerpts during the memory test. This finding suggests that pleasurable experiences can enhance memory performance. The researchers hypothesized that the increased pleasure from shared music listening might activate the brain’s reward system, which in turn could improve memory consolidation.
“Our study shows that sharing music listening online with others increased participants’ pleasure,” the researchers explained. “The more people connected, the greater the pleasure they felt, leading to better prosocial behavior and memory performance.”
“Importantly, this effect was consistently found across three experiments, various experimental designs (i.e., participants performing all experimental conditions or participants assigned to only one specific condition), different countries (USA and France), different types of music (self-selected by participants and experimenter-selected, including various music genres), and different social manipulations (small and large ‘sharing’ groups). With this study, we introduced a novel experimental paradigm that significantly modulated pleasure responses through social sharing.”
But the study, like all research, has some caveats to consider. The use of a simulated social presence may not fully capture the dynamics of real-life social interactions. Additionally, the participant pool, while diverse in terms of nationality (United States and France), may not fully represent the broader population, and the findings might differ in other cultural contexts.
Future research could address these limitations by conducting similar studies in more naturalistic and controlled environments to better replicate real-life social interactions. It would be beneficial to include a more diverse range of participants from various cultural backgrounds to see if the effects of socially shared music listening are consistent across different populations.
Additionally, further studies could explore the underlying neural and psychological mechanisms that drive the observed increases in pleasure, prosocial behavior, and memory. By incorporating neuroimaging techniques and examining the impact of different types of social interactions, researchers can gain deeper insights into how shared musical experiences influence human behavior and cognition.
“This study is part of a series of works exploring how sharing musical experiences (e.g., listening to music) affects our emotions, feelings, brain activity (both individual and synchronized across multiple brains), and cognitive functions (e.g., memory),” Curzel and Ferreri told PsyPost. “Specifically, we focus on the pleasure felt by participants and the affective component of these social interactions (i.e., the quality of relationships and interactions).”
“In a first work (Curzel et al., 2023, ACP), we investigated how listening to music with a group of unknown people could modulate pleasure and identified specific internal and external factors that might affect the experience. Subsequently, we examined the effects of an online sharing of music listening (Curzel et al., 2024, iScience).”
“Currently, we are preparing a new article on how sharing music listening with a friend modulates pleasure, brain activity, and interneural synchrony,” the researchers explained. “We can anticipate that we found fascinating results about the relationship between shared pleasure and interneural synchrony, but we invite you to look for the publication in a few months for the details.”
“Additionally, we will explore the relationship between interneural synchrony, shared pleasure, and memory, and also focus on how specific shared behaviors during an interaction might affect these factors. In the longer term, we aim to understand how music fosters social connections, synchronizes our brains, and boosts feelings.”
“If interested, you can follow the hashtag #SocialSharingSeries on Twitter/X to stay updated on our next studies about this topic,” Curzel and Ferreri added.
The study, “Enhancing musical pleasure through shared musical experience,” was authored by Federico Curzel, François Osiurak, Eléonore Trân, Barbara Tillmann, Pablo Ripollés, and Laura Ferreri.
