Making Music Increases Kids' Empathy

[VajraYaya]

Maybe the cure for psychopathy is to play music.

I've always believed music instruction in school or otherwise is very important. It is definitely something that should not be cut from eduction.

Making Music Together Increases Kids? Empathy

Music education produces myriad benefits, strengthening kids? abilities in reading, math, and verbal intelligence. New British research suggests it may also teach something less tangible, but arguably just as important:

The ability to empathize.

In a year-long program focused on group music-making, 8- to 11-year old children became markedly more compassionate, according to a just-published study from the University of Cambridge. The finding suggests kids who make music together aren?t just having fun: they?re absorbing a key component of emotional intelligence.

The research team, led by Tal-Chen Rabinowitchof the university?s Centre for Music and Science, studied 52 girls and boys. The kids, chosen from four British schools, were randomly assigned to either a music group, or one of two control groups.

The kids in the music group joined weekly hour-long sessions where they played specially designed musical games. Some of the games encouraged the young musicians to get ?as rhythmically coordinated as possible,? while others promoted the idea of ?shared intentionality? ? say, by having kids compose music together.

In the simplest game, ?Mirror-Match,? each child repeated a short musical phrase after it was played by a peer. This kind of imitation is believed to ?promote the sharing of mental states? ? a dynamic found in a 2010 study of 4-year-olds.

Children in the first control group also met for one hour each week, and played games designed to cultivate empathy through imitation and shared intentions, but their activities involved words and stories rather than music. The kids in the second control group didn?t take part in any special activities.

All the kids took three tests designed to measure their empathy for others. In two test, the children were shown film clips, and after, to gauge their emotional reactions, researchers had them choose among photos of people with different facial expressions. In the third test, the kids were asked to react to statements that helped researchers measure their empathy, such as ?I really like to watch people open presents, even when I don?t get a present myself.?

The key result: On the test where the kids agreed or disagreed with those yes-no questions, only those who had played the musical games significantly increased their empathy. Those in the control groups, in fact, began the school year with a slightly higher level of empathy, but by the end of the year, those in the music group has well surpassed past them.

Results on the groups that picked photos of facial expressions were more mixed: kids in the music and control groups showed similar increases in empathy over the year. But in a second, similar test administered only at year?s end, the music group scored much higher in empathy than the control groups. (The kids in the weekly sessions that did not include music had basically the same scores as those who received no special training, suggesting the empathy-enhancing games require music to be effective.)

While not definitive, researchers note that the findings provide ?more than tentative support? to their theory that intelligently structured group music-making can promote ?day-to-day emotional empathy.?

And why wouldn?t it? Making music in an ensemble means learning how to work together toward a common goal. It?s hard to imagine such lessons are forgotten as soon as one walks out of the practice room.

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[music]

Good post, thank you. I think many of us could have told them that, especially those of us who have had anything to do with indigenous tribal cultures. It would be interesting to know what kind of music was played, because in my opinion the less western and "square" the music, the greater the beneficial effects of playing it. I once played with a traditional Ghanaian drummer, and he told me of the games they had as a child using complex polyrhythms and call and return vocalisations. When they went to western style schools for music lessons, the frustration they felt was enormous - they just couldn't play the exceedingly square 2/4 De Sousa march without a swing feel. The children couldn't understand why something as exciting as music was reduced to such mediocrity, and the white music teacher got more and more furious with their unwillingness to be put into a square western box! My experience of West African people (the ones I have known anyway) is that they are happy, well-balanced, and very empathic people, and I would guess that music culture plays a role there.

[flower]

I completly agree with the topic of this thread.

Sting participated in a study about music with the Mcgill university in montreal. They discovered that a musician can exhibit the same brain waves , during a session that a shaman shows during a meditation...

Music is not only a healing tool... but a creation tool in so many ways

[alienHunter]

I guess I should be glad that my daughter is into art & music...for my money, her empathy reading needs a slight boost...what can i say though...she is so much like her mother and only 12 years old as well... :O)

Maybe the cure for psychopathy is to play music.

I've always believed music instruction in school or otherwise is very important. It is definitely something that should not be cut from eduction.

Making Music Together Increases Kids’ Empathy