The Sound of Success: Investigating Cognitive and Behavioral Effects of Motivational Music in Sports.

Paul Elvers,Jochen Steffens

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02026

Abstract

Listening to music before, during, or after sports is a common phenomenon, yet its functions and effects on performance, cognition, and behavior remain to be investigated. In this study we present a novel approach to the role of music in sports and exercise that focuses on the notion of musical self-enhancement (Elvers, 2016). We derived the following hypotheses from this framework: listening to motivational music will (i) enhance self-evaluative cognition, (ii) improve performance in a ball game, and (iii) evoke greater risk-taking behavior. To evaluate the hypotheses, we conducted a between-groups experiment (N = 150) testing the effectiveness of both an experimenter playlist and a participant-selected playlist in comparison to a no-music control condition. All participants performed a ball-throwing task developed by Decharms and Davé (1965), consisting of two parts: First, participants threw the ball from fixed distances into a funnel basket. During this task, performance was measured. In the second part, the participants themselves chose distances from the basket, which allowed their risk-taking behavior to be assessed. The results indicate that listening to motivational music led to greater risk taking but did not improve ball-throwing performance. This effect was more pronounced in male participants and among those who listened to their own playlists. Furthermore, self-selected music enhanced state self-esteem in participants who were performing well but not in those who were performing poorly. We also discuss further implications for the notion of musical self-enhancement.

Highlights

Many people across the world, from occasional runners and gym goers to world-class athletes, integrate music into their competitions and workout routines
We suggest that the psychological processes that are linked to motivation and emotion play an important role for understanding the functions and effects of music in sports and exercise
Since the participants’ training history appeared to be an important variable that could influence the effect of the motivational music (Brownley et al, 1995), the participants were asked whether they had previous experience in ball games and how they perceived their ball-throwing efficacy (α = 0.81)

Summary

Introduction

Many people across the world, from occasional runners and gym goers to world-class athletes, integrate music into their competitions and workout routines. During the Olympic games in Beijing 2008, the American swimmer Michael Phelps listened to music on his portable music device until 2 min before his competition to get himself into the right mindset (Terry and Karageorghis, 2011). Another example is the Maori battle cry “Haka,” which is regularly performed by the New Zealand national rugby team prior to competitions (World-Rugby, 2015).

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Discussion

Conclusion