The Relationship Between Prosocial Music and Helping Behaviour and its Mediators: An Irish College Sample

Abstract

Previous research based on the General Learning Model (GLM) found that exposure to prosocial music increased helping behaviour. The present research aimed to test the effects of prosocial music from current music charts and popular television series. An initial experiment determined the themes of four prosocial and four neutral songs; the second experiment then found that prosocial music significantly increased helping behavior, relative to neutral music. The findings indicated no statistical difference on affect or arousal between the samples exposed to either prosocial or neutral music. These results are consistent with previous research and indicate the importance of prosocial music in creating cooperative social scenarios. Suggestions for future research including the necessity for field and longitudinal studies were discussed.