Audience members attending classical music concerts experience synchronized heartbeats, breathing speeds, and even sweat production.
Wolfgang Tschacher and his team from the University of Bern in Switzerland conducted a study where 132 individuals were divided into three groups. Each group watched different concerts featuring the same music compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Brett Dean, and Johannes Brahms. The participants wore body sensors to monitor their physiological responses during the concerts.
The study found that various measurements, including heart rates, breathing speeds, and skin conductance (which indicates sweating), became synced among the audience members during the performances.
Before the concerts, the participants completed a personality test. The researchers discovered that individuals who identified as agreeable or open were more likely to experience synchronization. Tschacher explains that openness reflects the personality trait of welcoming new experiences, such as appreciation for art, travel, and exotic things. Agreeable individuals tend to meet social expectations, such as being able to concentrate during a concert.
Tschacher believes that this synchronization would also occur in non-classical music genres and might even be more powerful outside of a controlled trial setting. In normal music concerts, where audience members often engage with each other, the synchrony could be even more pronounced. However, during the study, the audience members were socially distanced due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Interestingly, the timing of participants’ breathing did not synchronize during the concerts. Daniel Richardson from University College London suggests that instead of synchronized breathing leading to synchronized heart rates, a person’s heart rate could be influenced by their enjoyment of the music. Further exploration is required to understand this concept fully.
