Mind-bending music And this is where the power of music may really lie. But these influences don’t always have to be negative. The Croatian study, for example, found that participants listening to Ed Sheeran’s How Would You Feel and Beethoven’s Für Elise took their foot off the accelerator a little, driving up to 10kph slower than those listening to metal or driving in silence. Karageorghis and his colleagues, who conducted a series of studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK, have also found that soft, calming music might be deployed to help improve driving on the roads. Music that won’t drive you crazy “The pleasant feelings induced by some forms of music engender a mental state that can result in safer behaviours,” says Karageoghis. And it appears to be particularly effective in urban environments, where driving is often most difficult. It could be that allowing people to choose low intensity music they enjoy simply makes them happier and so less likely to get frustrated or do anything rash. It could also help to prevent drivers from becoming overwhelmed by the noise, bright lights and busy streets of city centres, he suggests – not to mention having a direct affect on how our brains send signals to our limbs. “Music with lower levels of energy holds implications for the efferent nervous system, or how the brain controls the working muscles, meaning that there’s a lower likelihood of hard acceleration and sharp braking,” he says. Choosing the right music when driving could help reduce the risk of accidents, Karageorghis claims. He and his colleagues have even developed playlists specifically for urban driving (they include tracks such as Sia’s Cheap Thrills , Closer by the Chainsmokers and Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran and Khalid). It’s all in the mind Perhaps inevitably, most studies looking at the effects of music on driving tend to be small, involving a few dozen participants, largely due to how time consuming they are to conduct. It means care should be taken when generalising the results – some of us will react differently to others. And there is some evidence that suggests our personalities play a role. “Extroverts tend to seek stimulation from their environment, and there is a propensity for extroverts to benefit more than introverts from the stimulation that music can offer,” says Karageoghis, by way of example. But music also has a more visceral affect on us than simply influencing the way we drive. It is universal across human cultures and used in surprisingly similar ways around the world. Lullabies are sung to send children to sleep; repetitive Photo: Warner Music 54 Magazine 04 Want to be safer in traffic? A certain red-headed Brit might have the answer.
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