MESOC Serapeum | Where culture meets AI

Id		139
Author		Kirschner, S., ; Tomasello, M.,
Title		Joint music making promotes pro-social behavior in 4-year-old children
Reference		Kirschner, S.; Tomasello, M. (2010). Joint music making promotes pro-social behavior in 4-year-old children. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 354–364.
Link to article		https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.04.004
Abstract		Humans are the only primates that make music. But the evolutionary origins and functions of music are unclear. Given that in traditional cultures music making and dancing are often integral parts of important group ceremonies such as initiation rites, weddings or preparations for battle, one hypothesis is that music evolved into a tool that fosters social bonding and group cohesion, ultimately increasing prosocial in-group behavior and cooperation. Here we provide support for this hypothesis by showing that joint music making among 4-year-old children increases subsequent spontaneous cooperative and helpful behavior, relative to a carefully matched control condition with the same level of social and linguistic interaction but no music. Among other functional mechanisms, we propose that music making, including joint singing and dancing, encourages the participants to keep a constant audiovisual representation of the collective intention and shared goal of vocalizing and moving together in time — thereby effectively satisfying the intrinsic human desire to share emotions, experiences and activities with others.

Results:

Candidate transition variables
Proximate mechanisms It may be possible that the enhanced prosocial behavior in the Musical condition was due to some music-specific evolved psychological mechanism. .
This theory treats music and dance as effective tools for creating a positive collective experience among many people at the same time, thereby generating an intuitive feeling of community and bonding among the performers. .
Among other functional mechanisms, we propose that music making, including joint singing and dancing, encourages the participants to keep a constant audiovisual representation of the collective intention and shared goal of vocalizing and moving together in time thereby effectively satisfying the intrinsic human desire to share emotions, experiences and activities with others..
In the case of music, cultural groups that sang and danced together during certain rituals would have experienced a stronger group cohesion which could have led to many different types of group beneficial behaviors in competition with other groups. .
Given that in traditional cultures music making and dancing are often integral parts of important group ceremonies such as initiation rites, weddings or preparations for battle, one hypothesis is that music evolved into a tool that fosters social bonding and group cohesion, ultimately increasing prosocial in-group behavior and cooperation. .