Search

Moving in synchrony to the beat is a fundamental component of musicality. Here, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify common genetic variants associated with beat synchronization in 606,825 individuals. Beat synchronization exhibited a highly polygenic architecture, with sixty-nine loci reaching genome-wide significance (p

Funder: Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (2), Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the rhythmic coordination of perception and action, is a fundamental human skill that supports many behaviors, including music and dance (Repp, 2005; Repp & Su, 2013). Traditionally, SMS experiments have been performed in the laboratory using finger tapping paradigms, and have required equipment with high temporal fidelity to capture the asynchronies between the time of the tap and the corresponding cue event. Thus, SMS is particularly challenging to study with online research, where variability in participants' hardware and software can introduce uncontrolled latency and jitter into recordings. Here we present REPP (Rhythm ExPeriment Platform), a novel technology for measuring SMS in online experiments that can work efficiently using the built-in microphone and speakers of standard laptop computers. In a series of calibration and behavioral experiments, we demonstrate that REPP achieves high temporal accuracy (latency and jitter within 2 ms on average), high test-retest reliability both in the laboratory (r = .87) and online (r = .80), and high concurrent validity (r = .94). We also show that REPP is fully automated and customizable, enabling researchers to monitor experiments in real time and to implement a wide variety of SMS paradigms. We discuss online methods for ensuring high recruiting efficiency and data quality, including pre-screening tests and automatic procedures for quality monitoring. REPP can therefore open new avenues for research on SMS that would be nearly impossible in the laboratory, reducing experimental costs while massively increasing the reach, scalability, and speed of data collection.

Music-related decision making encompasses a wide range of behaviours including those associated with music composition and performance, listening choices, music consumption, and decisions involving music education and therapy. Although research programmes in psychology and economics have contributed to an improved understanding of music-related behaviour, historically these disciplines have been unconnected. In this thesis, I present The Behavioural Economics of Music (BEM), a novel research framework that promotes the study of musical behaviour using the tools of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics aims to increase the explanatory power of neoclassical economics by relaxing the rationality assumptions of homo economicus, incorporating insights from an array of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, and neuroscience. Thus, the BEM offers an empirically supported set of new concepts and methods that can prove particularly suited to study the multi-faceted nature of music. Ten scientific publications were conducted to support this thesis at three distinct levels. Firstly, two literature reviews helped in understanding the need and value of the BEM. Secondly, four empirical studies examined whether core concepts from behavioural economics, such as bounded rationality and cognitive heuristics, can increase our understanding of music decision making. Findings from these studies indicated that listeners are not utility maximisers who use all information and time available to make optimal musical choices. Instead, they are boundedly rational and, therefore, limited by their cognitive ability, time, and information available. Finally, a further four studies focused on the application of the BEM to improve music-related decision making in the real world. Two studies investigated decision making in the context of choosing music for branding and advertising and two other studies explored alternative methods to examine responses to music in the real world. Overall, these studies emphasize the synergistic benefits of the BEM to both psychologists and economists. Specifically, the BEM draws upon insights from a range of disciplines (including important work from music psychology and music cognition), whilst incorporating models from behavioural economic theory, thereby providing a framework that is wide in scope as well as internally consistent. Musikbezogene Entscheidungen umfassen ein breites Spektrum von Verhaltensweisen, darunter solche, die mit der Komposition und Aufführung von Musik, der Musikauswahl, dem Musikkonsum sowie Entscheidungen im Zusammenhang mit Musikunterricht und -therapie in Verbindung stehen. Obwohl Forschungsprogramme sowohl in der Psychologie und den Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu einem besseren Verständnis des musikbezogenen Verhaltens beigetragen haben, waren diese beiden Disziplinen in der Vergangenheit nicht miteinander verbunden. In dieser Arbeit stelle ich daher die Verhaltensökonomie der Musik (The Behavioural Economics of Music, BEM) vor, einen neuartigen Forschungsrahmen, der die Erforschung musikalischen Verhaltens mit den Methoden der Verhaltensökonomie beinhaltet. Die Verhaltensökonomie zielt darauf ab, die Erklärungskraft der neoklassischen Ökonomie zu erhöhen, indem sie die Rationalitätsannahmen des homo oeconomicus lockert und Erkenntnisse aus einer Reihe von Disziplinen, darunter Psychologie, Soziologie, Anthropologie, Biologie und Neurowissenschaften, miteinbezieht. Somit bietet die BEM eine Reihe empirisch gestützter neuer Konzepte und Methoden, die sich als besonders geeignet erweisen können, um die facettenreiche Natur der Musik zu untersuchen. Zehn wissenschaftliche Studien wurden durchgeführt, um diese These auf drei verschiedenen Ebenen zu unterstützen. Zunächst wurden zwei Literaturreviews durchgeführt, um die Notwendigkeit und den Wert des BEM zu beleuchten. Basierend darauf wurde in vier empirischen Studien untersucht, ob Kernkonzepte aus der Verhaltensökonomie, wie z. B. begrenzte Rationalität und kognitive Heuristiken, unser Verständnis der musikalischen Entscheidungsfindung verbessern können. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studien deuten darauf hin, dass Hörer keine Nutzenmaximierer sind, die alle verfügbaren Informationen und Zeit nutzen, um optimale musikalische Entscheidungen zu treffen. Stattdessen sind sie begrenzt rational und daher durch ihre kognitiven Fähigkeiten, ihre Zeit und die verfügbaren Informationen eingeschränkt. Vier weitere Studien befassten sich schließlich mit der Anwendung des BEM zur Verbesserung der musikbezogenen Entscheidungsfindung in der realen Welt. Zwei Studien erforschten hierbei die Entscheidungsfindung im Zusammenhang mit der Auswahl von Musik für Branding und Werbung, und zwei weitere Studien untersuchten alternative Methoden zur Untersuchung von Reaktionen auf Musik in der realen Welt. Insgesamt unterstreichen diese Studien den synergetischen Nutzen des BEM sowohl für Psychologen als auch für Wirtschaftswissenschaftler. Insbesondere stützt sich das BEM auf Erkenntnisse aus einer Reihe von Disziplinen (einschließlich wichtiger Arbeiten aus der Musikpsychologie und der Musikkognition), während es gleichzeitig Modelle aus der ökonomischen Verhaltenstheorie einbezieht und so einen Rahmen bietet, der sowohl breit gefächert als auch in sich konsistent ist.

The present study investigated how the gender distribution of the United Kingdom’s most popular artists has changed over time and the extent to which these changes might relate to popular music lyrics. Using data mining and machine learning techniques, we analyzed all songs that reached the UK weekly top 5 sales charts from 1960 to 2015 (4,222 songs). DICTION software facilitated a computerized analysis of the lyrics, measuring a total of 36 lyrical variables per song. Results showed a significant inequality in gender representation on the charts. However, the presence of female musicians increased significantly over the time span. The most critical inflection points leading to changes in the prevalence of female musicians were in 1968, 1976, and 1984. Linear mixed-effect models showed that the total number of words and the use of self-reference in popular music lyrics changed significantly as a function of musicians’ gender distribution over time, and particularly around the three critical inflection points identified. Irrespective of gender, there was a significant trend toward increasing repetition in the lyrics over time. Results are discussed in terms of the potential advantages of using machine learning techniques to study naturalistic singles sales charts data.

A field experiment was conducted with a professional busker in the London Underground over the course of 24 days. Its aim was to investigate the extent to which performative aspects influence behavioural responses to music street performances. Two aspects of the performance were manipulated: familiarity of the music (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and body movements (expressive vs. restricted). The amount of money donated and number of people who donated were recorded. A total of 278 people donated over the experiment. The music stimuli, which was selected in an online study to differ only in familiarity, had been previously recorded by the busker. During the experimental sessions, the busker lip-synced to the pre-recorded recordings. Thus, the audio input in the experiment remained identical across sessions and the only variables that changed across conditions were the familiarity of the music and the expressivity of performed body movements. The results indicated that neither music familiarity nor performer’s body movements had a significant impact on the amount of money donated (Rm2= .033) nor the number of donors (Rm2= .023). These results do not support previous literature on the influence of familiarity and performers’ body movements, typically conducted in lab and artificial environments. The findings are further discussed with regard to potential extraneous variables that are crucial to control for (i.e., location of the performance, physical appearance, the bandwagon effect) and the advantages of field versus laboratory experiments. A novel research framework to study music judgements and behaviour is introduced, namely, the behavioural economics of music.

The repeated recording illusion refers to the phenomenon in which listeners believe to hear different musical stimuli while they are in fact identical. The present paper aims to construct an experimental paradigm to enable the systematic measurement of this phenomenon, investigating potentially related extrinsic and individual difference factors. Participants were told to listen to ‘‘different’’ musical performances of an original piece when in fact they were exposed to the same repeated recording. Each time, the recording was accompanied by a text suggesting a low, medium, or high prestige of the performer. Most participants (75%) believed that they had heard different musical performances. Participants with high levels of neuroticism and openness were significantly more likely to fall for the illusion. While the explicit information presented with the music influenced participants’ ratings significantly, the effect of repeated exposure was only significant in the more familiar music condition. These results suggest that like many other human judgments, evaluations of music also rely on cognitive biases and heuristics that do not depend on the stimuli themselves. The repeated recording illusion can constitute a useful paradigm for investigating nonmusical factors because it allows for the study of their effects while the music remains the same.