Sad Music can Facilitate the Sharing of Negative Emotions

Talking about sad things in a group and listening to sad music makes people feel more depressed about their life, so always listen to inspiring music, suggests an Australian study.

This kind of group rumination with music was more common in younger people, and likely reflects relative importance of both music and social relationships to younger people, the study found.

Personalized Music Helps Seniors to Cope With Alzheimer�s and Dementia
Personalized music playlists are tried by nursing home employees to help seniors to cope with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

‘Avoid listening to sad music in a group and talking about sad things, as it can make you depressed.’

Tweet it Now

"These results reveal important information about how people with depression use music," said corresponding author, Sandra Garrido from Western Sydney University, Milperra, Australia.

"Susceptible individuals with a predilection for rumination may be most likely to suffer negative outcomes from group rumination, with social feedback deepening and exacerbating negative thoughts and feelings," Garrido said.

The findings, published in Frontiers in Psychology, also showed that listening to inspiring music in a group and engaging in discussions about music and life is a more positive interaction that makes people feel good.

Lack of Interest in Music Linked to Poor Brain Connectivity
People who lacked joy from music -- a condition described as specific musical anhedonia -- had reduced functional connectivity between cortical brain regions.

In this study, the researchers wanted to investigate the self-reported effects on mood that comes with listening to sad music in group settings, and how mood is influenced by rumination (a maladaptive focus on negative thoughts), depression, and coping style.

To do so, they recruited 697 participants who completed an online survey about "their ways of using music, types of musical engagement and the effect of music listening."

Lack of Joy from Music Linked to Brain Disconnection
Have you ever met someone who just wasn't into music? They may have a condition called specific musical anhedonia.

The participants also completed a number of additional questionnaires, which helped the researchers determine factors such as the presence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress; general tendencies towards depression; coping styles, i.e. tendencies towards rumination or reflection; musical engagement as a measurement of wellbeing; as well as questionnaires addressing a variety of aspects of music listening, both alone and in a group.

The results showed that young people may be especially vulnerable to the impacts of group rumination with music.

Know Why Music Has a Profound Effect on Our Moods, Emotions
Genetic variability of dopamine receptors affects sound environment modulations of mood and emotion processing.

Source-IANS