How can Song Lyrics Influence Behavior - Lyrics Prime Behavior For Good and Bad
"I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a great night,
tonight's gonna be a good night,
tonight's destined to be a good, good night."
The song makes me feel optimistic, energizes me, and gives me hope. This begs the question, how can music lyrics prime the mind to get and interpret information?
Words Can Unknowingly Affect Behavior
Countless studies have shown that words powerfully influence thinking, behavior, and mood, and much from it occurs without conscious awareness. Favorite songs are listened to again and again hundreds or many, many times so it makes good sense to invest that music lyrics will have a profound effect on the listener's thought of the entire world, others, and which emotions are experienced plus the frequency of these emotions.
Nearly all of Mind Works outside Conscious Awareness
In psychology, researchers are beginning to understand the significance of the workings of the mind beyond the conscious experience. Conscious awareness is just the jumping off point when going through the mind. There is considerable agreement among neuroscientists that many cognitive processing occurs outside conscious awareness. Roughly 90-95% of mental activity occurs outside conscious awareness. Point about this 'back office' activity is automatic and emotional. Point about this activity is taking place just below the degree of our awareness.
Subconscious Activity Impacts Daily Behavior
Inspite of the lack of knowledge, subconscious activity includes a tremendous impact on the way the world is perceived from the senses, day-to-day behaviors, emotions felt and satisfaction with life. For instance, numerous research has been done about the phenomenon known as priming. Priming occurs when one is subjected to certain stimulus, for example words, lyrics, or surroundings, as well as their subconscious is activated. Once activated, the person tends to act in ways which can be in conjuction with the stimulus without awareness of why they're behaving for the reason that manner. Priming can influence behavior in dramatic ways.
Illustration of the tranquility of a Psychological Priming Study
Allow me to explain these kind of studies for instance. Imagine you volunteered for an additional experiment: You're given four jumbled sentences by way of a researcher who lets you know in the future get her when you have finished unscrambling them (in order that the sentences are meaningful). There is a extra word in each sentence need not be used. For instance, you might be offered something such as... 'her interrupt bother usually they' Because the subject, you would translate this mess into something meaningful for example... 'They usually interrupt her' or 'They usually bother her.' A few minutes later, you finish the work of unscrambling the 4 sentences and walk on the hallway to obtain the researcher. You will find her but she's amid a conversation with a stranger and isn't paying manual intervention to you. What do you do? For those people who unscrambled sentences which contained one word per sentence relating to rude behavior, such as 'rash,' 'aggressive,' 'bother,' and 'intrude,' you are far more likely to interrupt the researcher within 2 minutes and say, 'Hey, I'm done. What's next?'
Priming Will make People More Rude or More Subservient
However, in the event you unscrambled sentences in which the one rude word was swapped with a polite word such as 'respect,' 'nice,' or 'courteous,' the possibilities you will wallow in it passively for about 10 mins before the researcher finishes her conversation. And you'll have no clue what influenced you to be so docile.
Priming Could make Folks Act Older, More Forgetful
These experiments happen to be replicated repeatedly. One experiment stood a crowd simply read a listing of words where some of the words had to do with stereotypes of elderly people, including 'retirement,' 'Florida,' and 'bald.' Affirmed, participants have been 'primed' with elderly-related words instantly began acting consistent with the elderly stereotype. They walked slower along the hallway, they walked making use of their shoulders slightly more hunched over, as well as their short-term memory became worse compared to the control group. Merely reading their email list with words associated with later years led to forgetfulness and other behavioral changes. The frightening thing about these experiments is the group because of the words linked to elderly stereotypes couldn't remember any words concerning the elderly in the original listing of words. So they really were affected by the words then forgot about exactly what it was that influenced them. All of this groundwork brings me to the latest research, which came out June 25th, 2009, demonstrating that song lyrics prime behavior as well. When inspired to fill out the missing song lyrics for various songs, participants' behaviors and attitudes changed in startling ways.
Patriotic Songs Make People Close-Minded and More Prejudiced
Donald Saucier at Kansas State University found that when people completed the lyrics for patriotic songs, such as 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' they became more close-minded, prejudiced and fewer empathetic. They didn't put themselves in the shoes of one other person to view the world through different eyes.
Children's Songs Lead to More Acceptance and Empathy
What's more, when we completed lyrics to songs including 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider', they became more pro-social, reporting more accepting attitudes towards others plus more empathy. The hypothesis are these claims is due to the strong association most people have with such childhood songs to happiness or contentment in their own personal childhood. To conclude, musical lyrics influence attitudes towards others, emotions felt and just how frequently they are experienced, and the way the world is perceived. Because of the research, it's wise to closely look at the lyrics of the songs you listen to frequently. They could be impacting you more than you realized.
