Enhancing musical pleasure through shared musical experience

Abstract

Summary: Music and social interactions represent two of the most important sources of pleasure in our lives, both engaging the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. However, there is limited understanding regarding whether and how sharing a musical activity in a social context influences and modifies individuals’ rewarding experiences. Here, we aimed at (1) modulating the pleasure derived from music under different social scenarios and (2) further investigating its impact on reward-related prosocial behavior and memory. Across three online experiments, we simulated a socially shared music listening and found that participants’ music reward was significantly modulated by the social context, with higher reported pleasure for greater levels of social sharing. Furthermore, the increased pleasure reported by the participants positively influenced prosocial behavior and memory outcomes, highlighting the facilitating role of socially boosted reward. These findings provide evidence about the rewarding nature of socially driven music experiences, with important potential implications in educational and clinical settings.

Keywords

• Neuroscience
• Social sciences
• Psychology