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Cited by 62Experimental Behavioral Economics StudiesNeuroscience and Music PerceptionEvolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

Chill-inducing music enhances altruism in humans.

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Fukui, Hajime, Toyoshima, Kumiko·2014·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01215PMC PMC4211412
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Abstract

Music is a universal feature of human cultures, and it has both fascinated and troubled many researchers. In this paper we show through the dictator game (DG) that an individual's listening to preferred "chill-inducing" music may promote altruistic behavior that extends beyond the bounds of kin selection or reciprocal altruism. Participants were 22 undergraduate and postgraduate students who were divided into two groups, the in-group and the out-group, and they acted as dictators. The dictators listened to their own preferred "chill-inducing" music, to music they disliked, or to silence, and then played the DG. In this hypothetical experiment, the dictators were given real money (which they did not keep) and were asked to distribute it to the recipients, who were presented as stylized images of men and women displayed on a computer screen. The dictators played the DG both before and after listening to the music. Both male and female dictators gave more money after listening to their preferred music and less after listening to the music they disliked, whereas silence had no effect on the allocated amounts. The group to which the recipient belonged did not influence these trends. The results suggest that listening to preferred "chill-inducing" music promotes altruistic behavior.

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  • Sharing music and musical practices is seen as an act of altruism and solidarity.

    “These findings show that sharing music and musical practices is seen as an act of altruism and solidarity (Laurence and Urbain, 1999; Fukui and Toyoshima, 2014).”

    From Uses and Perceptions of Music in Times of COVID-19: A Spanish Population Survey (2021) · cites this paper as Fukui and Toyoshima, 2014

    The Introduction describes joint music-making as fostering shared goals, and the Discussion links music to social cohesion and altruistic behavior. But the paper studies whether listening to music promotes later altruistic behavior; it does not say that sharing music or musical practices is itself seen as an act of altruism and solidarity. The indexed passages have section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Authors
Fukui, H., & Toyoshima, K.
Affiliations
Nara University of Education (JP)
Corresponding author
Fukui, Hajime
ORCID
Fukui, Hajime
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2014-10-28
Volume
5
Pages
1215-1215
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01215
PMC
PMC4211412
OpenAlex
W2120098911
Cited by
62
References
8
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
FWCI
7.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Keywords
altruism, dictator game, music preference, music listening, prosocial behavior, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, in-group and out-group, gender differences

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