Can music promote social inclusion?
Increasingly, researchers in the psychology of
music have turned their attention to this question. Within our current global
context where we are witness to unprecedented numbers of displaced peoples, research in
this area has important implications. Several researchers have investigated the
power of music to support vulnerable groups in forging a sense of belonging within
their wider communities. Psychology of Music is leading in highlighting some of
this research, embracing methodologies that include meta-analyses, experimental
designs and in-depth qualitative case studies.
Focusing
on music-making as a potential creative and compassionate response to issues
around social inclusion, Henderson, Cain,
Istvandity, and Lakhani
reviewed the evidence for the role of participatory music in supporting the
integration of migrant communities. The researchers focused on research over
the past decade concerned with positive mental, physical, and emotional health
outcomes of music interventions. While the wider benefits of music
interventions for migrant groups is, as yet, an under-researched area, there is
some compelling evidence to suggest that collaborative music-making could play
an important role in promoting acculturation and helping newly arrived
community members to develop self-confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of
identity within their new environments. Amongst the studies reviewed, a
significant feature of the music interventions was the potential for developing
inter-cultural respect and understanding, through sharing of musics from the
former home country as well as exploration of musics from the new home country.
Some
of the positive effects of music for social inclusion may be related to the
characteristics of musical social networks noted by Pearce, Launay,
MacCarron, and Dunbar.
These researchers compared singing groups to craft and creative writing groups,
focusing on social and relational bonding. The singers were distinctive in
rapidly forming social bonds; this was possibly attributable to their sense of
collaboration in working together towards a
common goal, as well as endorphin
release (as a result of the singing), which may have fostered feelings of closeness towards an
unfamiliar group of people.
Listening
to music, too, may evoke feelings of cross-cultural affiliation. According to a
groundbreaking study reported by Vuoskoski, Clarke, and
DeNora, listening to music from a culture different
to one’s own may increase the listener’s positive implicit attitudes towards
that particular culture. This study, the first to demonstrate that listening to
music can evoke feelings of social affiliation, extends our knowledge
concerning the potential for synchronous music-making
music to promote empathy and pro-social behaviour.
