FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES ONLY — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

FACT SHEET

Study show music benefitting more than just for pleasure

Studies show your mood, mental clarity and well-being can all be positively affected based on
designer music

 Study show a relationship between music and feelings, as well as music and physiological
responses.
 The Effects of Different Types of Music on Mood, Tension, and Mental Clarity investigated
the impact of different types of music on individuals’ mental and physical well-being.
 Rollin McCraty is a psychophysiologist at HeartMath Institute and director of research
 Mike Atkinson is laboratory project manager at HeartMath Institute
 Dana Tomasino is a biologist at the Institute of HeartMath
 Bob Barrios-Choplin is visiting assistant professor of management in the Department of
Systems Management, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Cal.
 Published through Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
 The study has shown a direct benefit in reducing stress, fatigue, and to enhance emotional
well-being and mental clarity.
 The HeartMath Institute paid for the study.
 To test the effects of music on an individual’s health and well-being, the research selected
music in grunge rock, ‘designer music’, classical, and New Age categories based on
popularity, determined by sales as reported in Billboard Magazine at the time of the study.
The thesis was that the autonomic, immune and neuroendocrine changes observed on other
studies in response to listening to music are mainly triggered by changes in affective and
psychological states, and these states can be favorably altered by certain types of music.
 Study subjects’ personal tastes in music as well as popularized opinions concerning the
effects of different musical genres may have led to expectancy effects, which possibly
influenced the study results.
 McCraty, R., Barrios-Choplin, B., Atkinson, M., & Tomasino, D. (1998, January). The Effect
of Different Types of Music on Mood, Tension, and Mental Clarity. Retrieved January 16,
2020,

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