Research has shown that musical engagement promotes prosocial behavior in preschool-aged children under some conditions but not others. The current study tested whether an active musical interaction between a preschooler (Mage: 56 months), an experimenter, and a research assistant would result in more sharing and helping behavior than a matched, non-musical interaction, while examining the extent to which a naturalistic musical interaction actually produced interpersonal movement synchrony. Verbal content was also manipulated (didactic/neutral). The results showed that musical play was associated with more spontaneous helping and overall sharing than non-musical play. Analysis of synchrony and joint movement within the experimental interaction showed that musical play resulted in significantly more joint movement and interpersonal synchrony than non-musical play, but that even in musical conditions, joint movement was only synchronized for a fraction of the length of the interaction. There was no evidence of an effect of verbal content on children’s behavior, despite uniformly high retention for the content of the song or poem across conditions. These findings provide further evidence that music making can facilitate prosocial behavior in preschoolers, regardless of lyrical content, and that joint movement may play a more significant role than precise movement synchrony in preschoolers’ musical engagement.
AnshelA.KipperD. A. (1988). The influence of group singing on trust and cooperation. Journal of Music Therapy, 25, 145–155. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/25.3.145
2.
BernieriF. J.RosenthalR. (1991). Interpersonal coordination: Behavior matching and interactional synchrony. In FeldmanR. S.RiméB. (Eds.), Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior (pp. 401–432). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
3.
BöhmT.RuthN.SchrammH. (2016). “Count on me”—The influence of music with prosocial lyrics on cognitive and affective aggression. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 26, 279–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000155
4.
BryanJ. H.WalbekN. H. (1970). Preaching and practicing generosity: Children’s actions and reactions. Child Development, 41, 329–353.
5.
CirelliL. K.EinarsonK. M.TrainorL. J. (2014). Interpersonal synchrony increases prosocial behavior in infants. Developmental Science, 17, 1003–1011. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12193
6.
CirelliL. K.WanS. J.SpinelliC.TrainorL. J. (2017). Effects of interpersonal movement synchrony on infant helping behaviors: Is music necessary?Music Perception, 34, 319–326. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2017.34.3.319
7.
CirelliL. K.WanS. J.TrainorL. J. (2016). Social effects of movement synchrony: Increased infant helpfulness only transfers to affiliates of synchronously moving partners. Infancy, 21, 807–821. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12140
8.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
CollinsR. (2014). Interaction ritual chains and collective effervescence. In von ScheveC.SalmelaM. (Eds.), Collective emotions: Perspectives from psychology, philosophy, and sociology (pp. 299–311). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659180.003.0020
10.
CrossI.TolbertE. (2009). Music and meaning. In HallamS.CrossI.ThautM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music psychology (pp. 33–47). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
11.
DunfieldK. A. (2014). A construct divided: Prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 958. https://doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00958
12.
EndedijkH. M.RamenzoniV. C. O.CoxR. F. A.CillessenA. H. N.BekkeringH.HunniusS. (2015). Development of interpersonal coordination between peers during a drumming task. Developmental Psychology, 51, 714–721.
13.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA. G.BuchnerA. (2007). G* Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.
14.
FischerP.GreitemeyerT. (2006). Music and aggression: The impact of sexual-aggressive song lyrics on aggression-related thoughts, emotions, and behavior toward the same and the opposite sex. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1165–1176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206288670
15.
GibsonE. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
GreitemeyerT. (2009). Effects of songs with prosocial lyrics on prosocial thoughts, affect, and behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 186–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.003
18.
GreitemeyerT. (2011). Exposure to music with prosocial lyrics reduces aggression: First evidence and test of the underlying mechanism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.08.005
19.
GreitemeyerT.HollingdaleJ.Traut-MattauschE. (2015). Changing the track in music and misogyny: Listening to music with pro-equality lyrics improves attitudes and behavior toward women. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4, 56–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030689
20.
GreitemeyerT.SchwabA. (2014). Employing music exposure to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Aggressive Behavior, 40, 542–551. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21531
21.
GrusecJ. E.Saas-KortsaakP.SimutisZ. M. (1978). The role of example and moral exhortation in the training of altruism. Child Development, 49, 920–923.
22.
JacobC.GuéguenN.BoulbryG. (2010). Effects of songs with prosocial lyrics on tipping behavior in a restaurant. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29, 761–763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.02.004
23.
KirschnerS.IlariB. (2014). Joint drumming in Brazilian and German preschool children: Cultural differences in rhythmic entrainment, but no prosocial effects. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 45, 137–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022113493139
KokalI.EngelA.KirschnerS.KeysersC. (2011). Synchronized drumming enhances activity in the caudate and facilitates prosocial commitment—If the rhythm comes easily. PLoS ONE, 6(11), Article e27272.
26.
KreutzG. (2014). Does singing facilitate social bonding?Music and Medicine, 6(2), 51–60.
27.
LockmanJ. J. (2000). A perception–action perspective on tool use development. Child Development, 71, 137–144.
28.
MaresM. L.BonusJ. A.PeeblesA. (2018). Love or comprehension? Exploring strategies for children’s prosocial media effects. Communication Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218797411
29.
MaresM. L.WoodardE. (2005). Positive effects of television on children’s social interactions: A meta-analysis. Media Psychology, 7, 301–322.
30.
NardoR. L.CustoderoL. A.PersellinD. C.FoxD. B. (2006). Looking back, looking forward: A report on early childhood music education in accredited American preschools. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54, 278–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/002242940605400402
31.
National Autism Center. (2015). Findings and conclusions: National standards project. Randolph, MA: Author.
32.
PearceE.LaunayJ.DunbarR. I. M. (2015). The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates social bonding. Royal Society Open Science, 2(10), Article 150221. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150221
33.
RabinowitchT.MeltzoffA. N. (2017a). Joint rhythmic movement increases 4-year-old children’s prosocial sharing and fairness toward peers. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 1050. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01050
34.
RabinowitchT.MeltzoffA. N. (2017b). Synchronized movement experience enhances peer cooperation in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 160, 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.001
RennungM.GöritzA. S. (2016). Prosocial consequences of interpersonal synchrony. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 224, 168–189. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000252
37.
RushtonJ. P. (1975). Generosity in children: Immediate and long-term effects of modeling, preaching, and moral judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 459–466. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076466
38.
SanfilippoK. R.PearceE.StewartL.LaunayJ. (2016, July). Creating together: Improvisation in music can enhance social bonding. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, San Francisco, CA.
39.
SkaggsR.LenseM.ClaytonJ. (2017). Building an evidence base for using music as a treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder (White paper). Nashville, TN: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, & Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.
40.
ThelenE. (2000). Motor development as foundation and future of developmental psychology. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 385–397.
41.
TunçgençB.CohenE. (2016). Movement synchrony forges social bonds across group divides. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 782. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00782
42.
WeinsteinD.LaunayJ.PearceE.DunbarR. I.StewartL. (2015). Group music performance causes elevated pain thresholds and social bonding in small and large groups of singers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37, 152–158.
43.
YuY.WuD.ZhangJ. X.FangP. (2019). Lyrics only or lyrics with music? The effect of different lyric conditions on prosocial-related outcomes. PsyCh Journal, 8, 503–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.269
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
