Communal music as a tool to improve positive affect after social ostracism or negative autobiographical memory recollection

Exposure to communal music may help regulate mood and cultivate feelings of belonging. Across two studies, we tested whether exposure to communally experienced (communal) music could impact participants’ affect following social ostracism and negative mood induction. Participants were exposed to a social media ostracism paradigm (SMOP; n  = 106) or an autobiographical negative memory recollection task (ANMIT; n  = 116), followed by a communal or a control song. Participants exposed to the communal song showed improved positive affect in both studies ( p _{study 1} = 0.004; p _{study 2} = 0.022), whereas affect worsened for those exposed to the control songs. Additionally, participants in the communal condition reported a greater sense of belonging associated with the music compared to the control ( p  = 0.026). These findings suggest that communal music may improve affect—improving positive affect by strengthening social connectedness—even when listened to in isolation.