Perceived and physiological indicators of relaxation: As different as Mozart and Alice in chains

The effects of listening to different types of music on perceived and physi ological indicators of relaxation were evaluated. Fifty-six undergraduate s tudents, 24 males and 32 females, mean age of 21, were randomly assigned to listen to classical, hard rock, self-selected relaxing music, or no music. Participants' relaxation level, skin temperature, muscle tension and heart rate were evaluated before and after exposure to a music condition. Analys es of variance using baseline measures as covariates indicated that skin te mperature decreased for all conditions (p = 0.001) and the classical, self- selected relaxing music and no music groups reported significant increases in feelings of relaxation (p = 0004). These results partially support the h ypothesis that classical and self-selected relaxing music can increase perc eptions of relaxation to a greater degree than listening to hard rock music . However, no differences were found between different types of music on ph ysiological indicators of arousal. Implications for using music to reduce s tress were discussed.