[Namsan Ddalggakbari] OO Is Needed to Increase Confession Success Rate

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] A man and a woman are sitting face to face in a restaurant. The man is about to confess his feelings to the woman. At this moment, would music help the man? Yes. According to an experiment by research teams from the University of Vienna and the University of Innsbruck in Austria, women showed greater affection toward men they met immediately after listening to music. However, men were not influenced by the music. So, what kind of music helps? Cheerful trot? Classical music with an old-fashioned feel? Cute children's songs? The author, a doctor of philosophy and music expert, recommends ‘neutral’ songs. Here, neutral means “songs covered in an acoustic version of famous songs” or “songs with a lot of piano and guitar sounds.”

In fact, according to a study in France, the female experimental group who listened to romantic melodies accepted a man's confession (request for phone number) at a rate 52% higher than the control group who listened to indifferent melodies. Holding an instrument also helps a little. In an experiment conducted about 300 times in a southern French city to get women's phone numbers, those carrying a guitar case, a sports bag, and empty-handed succeeded in confessing 33, 21, and 14 times respectively. The experimenters concluded that “there is an assumption in women's subconscious that men who play instruments have superior genes compared to those who do not.” The author argues that music is like “cheesecake,” a ‘fatal’ snack that you keep reaching for and listening to because it tastes good, even though you won’t starve to death if you don’t eat it.

Have you heard of the ‘Mozart effect’? It is a popular belief that listening to Mozart’s music makes children smarter. In fact, a research team at the University of California, Irvine, experimented on 36 students and found that the group who listened to Mozart for 10 minutes scored higher on task performance than the control group. However, the author raises objections to this. Thirty-six people is too small a sample size to be representative, lowering reliability. He also claims that not only Mozart’s music but all music is helpful. Quoting Professor Eckart Altenm?ller of the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, he says, “Listening to music promotes blood circulation in the right brain. When blood circulation in the right brain improves, mood improves, and when mood improves, synesthetic reasoning ability is enhanced,” adding, “This effect is not limited to Mozart alone. The same effect occurs when listening to music by other composers or reading short stories.”

In this regard, the author says that children should definitely learn an instrument from an early age. Citing a case in Canada where 67 children received piano lessons for over three years and then took IQ tests, showing higher results than the control group, he says, “Learning an instrument improves concentration and attention.” Furthermore, “As performance improves, a sense of achievement and confidence grow, and the ability to distinguish and process one’s emotions in detail improves,” and “language skills are enhanced.” He also claims that practicing music clarifies one’s sense of purpose, influencing self-development and aiding creativity development.

Music also helps those suffering from insomnia. The key is to select one or two songs to listen to consistently while sleeping to create a routine. This is called a ‘conditioned stimulus’ in technical terms. The author recommends Billy Joel’s ‘Lullabye’ because “the soft and calm lyrics and melody truly touch the heart.” However, listening to songs may suddenly make you want to play an instrument yourself. This can elevate your mood and make it difficult to fall asleep. In such cases, neurologists advise thinking of the ‘score’ sheet music. Imagine all the instruments playing their parts at once in your head, picturing which instrument will play which note next. The author agrees with this method but if it still doesn’t work, he recommends imagining each note as a sheep and counting “one sheep, two sheep, three sheep...”

The bathroom is an excellent place to hold your own concert. Singing leisurely has a tension-relieving effect. In a place where you can let go of everything and immerse yourself in warm water, biochemical reactions in the body are promoted, making it easier for great ideas to come to mind. Also, moments of self-awareness are rarely as heightened as when showering. The author says you can feel your voice more richly than usual, which you normally don’t notice.

In fact, the voice you hear when showering often sounds different from your usual voice. It’s like hearing a recorded version of your own voice. Many people feel that their recorded voice sounds different from their own voice, and that is actually correct. In reality, “the recorded voice is the voice others hear.” So why does it sound different to you? The culprit is our head. Our head acts like a boss speaker, amplifying certain frequencies of the voice or adding a slightly different resonance, making us perceive a different sound. This phenomenon is called ‘voice confrontation’ in psychology, and the good news is that anyone can have a good voice with training.

The training method the author suggests is as follows. Place your hand on your diaphragm and take a deep breath. Hum while breathing with your belly, not your chest, to relax the entire vocal cords. Then, hold a cork stopper in your mouth and say a few sentences, remove the cork stopper, and repeat the same sentences. This opens the vocal cords and allows you to produce a more pleasant voice.

Although some claims are dubious and evidence often seems weak, the content still contains interesting information worth knowing.