Nothing brings people together like a musical performance. Singing along with a few thousand of your best friends to a great song makes for a positive outlook and other warm, fuzzy emotions that carry over to the next day and beyond. We’ve all been there.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Research validates those good vibrations.
Psychologists, Melissa K. Weinberg and Dawn Joseph, studied the connection between “music engagement and subjective wellbeing,” or SWB. The study focused solely on the good feelings concert-goers get when they see performances live.
For their study, one thousand random participants were polled via phone. They found that “engaging with music by dancing or attending musical events was associated with higher SWB.” They concluded that people who socialized with others at concerts experienced SWB higher than people who didn’t.
Music bonded people with others in a community-like atmosphere. The good feelings generated by hanging out with others who like the same music and performers appeared to last for some time after the event ended. This was true across all ages.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
But going to concerts is certainly not the only way to boost your mood and get happier. Plenty of other research points to increasing happiness levels by simply listening to music. So, stream that new Taylor Swift album and sing into your hairbrush as loud as you can.
You’ll be happy you did.
