Can you hear the connection? A study on musical-social bonding

Date

2021-05

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Abstract

Why do humans use music to socially bond with each other? This dissertation attempts to understand one aspect of this question. Based on existing literature on musical and social entrainment, this dissertation proposes a new construct of Musical-Social Bonding (MSB) that examines how groove perception contributes to feeling connected in a musical environment. While MSB is most salient in group environments, this methodology focuses on individual research participants to increase experimental control over the variables. This dissertation found that groove perception, or the need to move to music, had a weak positive correlation both with emotional engagement with music and feeling included in the musical environment; in addition, self-construal was not significantly correlated with groove perception. These findings suggest that social elements tied to the musical environment may be more of a factor in MSB than self-construal. The final chapter in this dissertation applies the concepts of MSB to a fictional case study during the spatial-distancing of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elements of MSB may be effective at mitigating the mental health crisis caused by increased isolation. This chapter outlines how an MSB-based intervention can use virtual platforms to simulate physical proximity and, perhaps, minimize long-term crisis responses.

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Keywords

Beat Salience, Entrainment, Groove, Musical-Social Bonding, Self-Construal

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