Music and Belonging

The need to belong is a fundamental human motivation and the absence of attachment can cause problems. Ostracism has been found to evoke psychological distress and is widely used in social animals and human interpersonal relationships as a form of punishment. Many anecdotes suggest that music might help alleviate the negative effects of ostracism. The current study examined this possibility in a laboratory setting. The results of this study were not fully consistent with the hypothesis. Listening to either a happy or sad song did not buffer people from a later experience of ostracism. The music did, however, help people to recover their sense of control after ostracism. Acknowledgement Thanks to my supervisor Dr. Chris Loersch and thesis advisor Dr. Tiffany Ito for the genuine support. Especially for Dr. Chris Loersch, without the countless help from him, I wouldn’t be able to finish my thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Kip Williams and his graduate student Dongning Ren for the encouragement and inspiration. I would not have developed this thesis without them. Finally, I would like to thank UROP for funding my project.