Self-chosen music improved endurance during an experimental pain test
Participants tolerated more electrical stimulation while listening to their own music than to a podcast, with no detected influence from the measured social and cultural factors.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Listening to self-selected music improved endurance of experimentally induced pain and reduced pain ratings compared with a podcast. The study did not detect differences related to education or cultural capital. These results concern a laboratory pain test; they do not establish how much relief preferred music would provide for persistent pain or medical procedures.
This abstract-based account cannot translate the experimental findings into clinical pain relief. The abstract does not define the units of its reported regression coefficients or establish effects across every social or cultural setting.
What researchers found
Tolerance of increasing electrical stimulation
Self-selected music versus a podcast during testing after 20 minutes of listening, with audio continuing.
How the comparison worked
Participants experienced the audio conditions in randomized order. Researchers increased electrical stimulation during listening and measured endurance, the point at which pain was detected, pain ratings, emotions and heart rate variability.
Different measures gave different signals
Both music conditions increased the pain threshold relative to the podcast. Classical music also produced a different heart rate variability pattern. Those physiological findings do not establish that classical music provided greater pain relief than personally selected music.
The original publication
Self-Chosen Music as a Contributor to Music-Induced Analgesia Across Diverse Socio-Cultural Backgrounds: A Crossover Randomised Controlled Trial.
Becker AS, van der Valk Bouman ES, Schaap J et al.
Eur J Pain · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40772832
- Record checked
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