Relaxing Music Prevents Stress-Induced Increases in Subjective Anxiety, Systolic Blood Pressure, and Heart Rate in Healthy Males and Females
Abstract
Previous research suggests that while subjective anxiety is reduced by relaxing music, the effect of music on physiological stress indices is less consistent. In the current study, the effect of relaxing music on participants' subjective and physiological response to stress was explored, with attention paid to methodological factors and mediating variables that might have contributed to inconsistencies in previous studies. Undergraduate students (43 females & 44 males) were exposed to a cognitive stressor task involving preparation for an oral presentation either in the presence of Pachelbel's Canon in D major, or in silence. Measures of subjective anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol, and salivary IgA were obtained during rest and after presentation of the stressor. The stressor caused significant increases in subjective anxiety, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure in male and female controls. These stress-induced increases were each prevented by exposure to music, and this effect was independent of gender. Music also enhanced baseline salivary IgA levels in the absence of any stress-induced effects. These findings provide experimental support for claims that music is an effective anxiolytic treatment, the robustness of which is demonstrated by retention of the effect in the presence of a range of potentially mediating variables.
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Some other investigations did not find a meaningful impact of music on cortisol.
“However, some other investigations did not find a meaningful impact of music on cortisol [26,27].”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [26]
A decrease in anxiety after listening to music is the most consistent finding reported in laboratory-based studies.
“Indeed, a decrease in anxiety after listening to music is the most consistent findings reported in field studies with patients [22,37,38] and laboratory-based studies [26,39].”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [26]
A major shortcoming in previous work is the vast neglect of the control of confounding variables.
“From the perspective of biopsychological stress research, a major shortcoming is the vast neglect of the control of confounding variables [25–27].”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [26]
The stressor in our study (i.e. the TSST) might have been too strong, which could explain why music listening had no differential effect on psychological measures.
“It might be the case that the stressor in our study (i.e. the TSST) was too strong.”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [26]
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- Authors
- Knight, W. E. J., & Rickard, N. S.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Rickard, N. S.
- ORCID
- Rickard, N. S.
- Venue
- Journal of Music Therapy
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2001-12-01
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 254-272
- ISSN
- 0022-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 2053-7395
- OpenAlex
- W2001063112
- Cited by
- 478
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 6.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Music Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Music Therapy and Health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- relaxing music, stress, subjective anxiety, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, salivary IgA, cognitive stressors, oral presentations, gender differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Arousal, Blood Pressure, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Music Therapy, Stress, Psychological, Students, Treatment Outcome
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