Music is better than sex: An experiment at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele demonstrates that levels of the love hormone oxytocin rise higher during a concert experience than during physical intimacy.
shared music-making and the hearing of live music makes levels of the »cuddling hormone« spike. Oxytocin is usually released when people embrace and kiss; it also strengthens the immune system and reduces stress, fear and pain.
In cooperation with the TU Dresden, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele measured oxytocin levels of concert audience before and after the live concert at the Dresden Center of Regenerative Therapies. During the experiment, the average level before the concert was 37.54 pg/ml. After listening to music, the levels of the volunteers had risen to an average of 203.17 pg/ml. The musicians also displayed a significant effect: while hugging each other had hardly a measurable effect, making music together led to clear rise of oxytocin concentrations – on average, by 88.49 pg/ml.
These two increases were stronger than some of those measured in earlier studies after an intimate kiss or even sexual intercourse. According to scientific literature on the topic, a 20-second embrace of one’s partner leads to a rise in oxytocin levels of 3-5 pg/ml, while very intimate physical proximity leads to a rise of 50 to 150 pg/ml. Thus, shared music-making can create a deeper biological bond than an embrace.
Professor Clemens Kirschbaum of the TU Dresden commented on the results as follows: »Truly astonishing. It is very, very rare to see anything like this.«
»Of course, our audience has long been convinced of the positive effect of a beautiful concert. The fact that this little experiment has confirmed this inspires us further in our work,« says Jan Vogler, artistic director of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
The evaluation of the questionnaires filled out after the concert underlined the physiological findings: many listeners reported a strong feeling of connection with the musicians and other listeners. This feeling occurred especially frequently in visitors who described the music as expressive, emotional or aesthetic. There is a clear statistical correlation: music creates connections – measurable in the body, noticeable in our hearts.