Behavioral and Cognitive Effects of Listening to Music

Music is a large component of our lives and integrated in our routines. Listening to music has impacted our emotions and influenced or strengthened our beliefs. We are interested in how music can change our behavior and cognition. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the music we listen to, the levels of emotional maturity, and prosocial behaviors. Additionally, our research looks at the relationship between grit and the age of autonomous music selection. In our study we measure grit, a scale inspecting a person’s resilience. We focus on the cognitive aspect of emotional intelligence; the level in which a person can use and understand emotional cues in their everyday environment. Prior research has defined prosocial behavior as acts of empathy someone performs without being prompted. Music is measured by the year it was produced and its genre. We have three hypotheses: (1) there will be a positive correlation between music genre and emotional intelligence, (2) individuals listening to music from 1970-2000 will have a positive correlation with prosocial behavior, and (3) grit will have a positive correlation with the age of autonomous choice in music. This study has been approved by the IRB and data collection is ongoing. The participants are from the current student population of Murray State University take an electronic survey. Currently in this field of research there isn’t a measurement for the age in which people have the choice in the music they listen to, so we made a scale called the musical age of autonomy. The musical age of autonomy is intended for measuring the age a person chooses what music they listen to. The results of our study will be important for testing the new scale and providing it as a tool in the research field. Additionally, the outcome of our study will add new insight on the relationship between music, age of autonomous music picking, prosocial behavior, grit, and emotional intelligence, which has not been studied extensively. We hope our results may shed comprehension of music and its effects on human behavior and cognition. Keywords: Grit, Prosocial Behaviors, Emotional Intelligence, Music Autonomy, Music