For most of us, whether on the radio or in our playlists, listening to music is part of driving a car. But how does music really affect our driving style? Does it improve our focus or distract us? Fact check.
Music affects the mind and body
One thing is clear: music affects us. On the one hand, music is a conscious mood enhancer or trigger. Happy music tends to make you happy, lo-fi music makes you relaxed, and melancholy music is depressing. Music, on the other hand, unknowingly affects our bodies.
Fast and aggressive music has a faster heart rate and faster breathing than slow music. The pace in our heart rate range (60-80 beats per minute) also seems to calm us down.
Music in the car: distraction or stimulus?
There are two hypotheses, the distraction hypothesis, and the attention hypothesis. The distraction hypothesis is that music is the distraction of your brain. Distraction means that two tasks compete for the same cognitive abilities in the brain.
But: We humans are terrible multitaskers. And distraction while driving your car like the Honda small SUV, usually inevitably leads to diminished attention, which in this case increases driving performance and thus safety risks. Distraction while driving is, in turn, one of the most common causes of accidents.
Therefore, if music interferes with our driving, it poses a safety risk.
Next, there is a caution hypothesis. In short, music has an exciting effect.
Bad music is better than no music in the car
To find out, a team of Scientists in Groningen have created personal playlists for various research participants and made them negative and negative. I asked you to associate it with positive emotions.
Subjects equipped with this music each drove an 8-minute test route. I used positive playlists in the background once, negative playlists once, and no music at all.
Your personality plays a big role
But it’s not just music that influences your driving style. The individuality of the driver also plays a role. A Chinese research team, for example, investigated whether emotional people were more influenced by music than melancholy and apathetic people.
They found: People with a calm heart don’t bother them even with aggressive music. On the other hand, Choleric people should keep their hands away from a punk rock while driving.
However, common statements such as heavy metals make driving aggressive and lounge music relaxed.
The personality of the driver and the personality of the music seem to play as much a role as the genre of music and the strength of the music.
Perfect playlist? There is an algorithm for that!
That’s why there is an algorithm that can do just that. For example, Düsseldorf agency TRO, in collaboration with Amazon Music, has developed an algorithm to create playlists for relaxed driving.
These include songs such as Jadu Heart’s “Moon Rising”, Nick Mulvey’s “Vetiver” and The Cinematic Orchestra’s “That Home”.
This technology is not intelligent enough to fit playlists perfectly to individual drivers. But it’s only a matter of time.
At the latest, when sitting in a futuristic smart car that measures breathing, eyes, and heart rate, it’s okay for the intelligent music system to perfectly adapt the playlist to your mood and always play “. The safest “music.