HMN 2026: How Music listening shows no mental health benefit in 20,000 twin records

For many, music is a source of comfort, a mood booster and a remedy for loneliness. But does frequently listening to music actually lead to better mental health? A new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, shows that the connection is not as clear-cut. The results were recently published in Journal of Affective Disorders Reports.

The team analyzed data from approximately 10,500 individuals in 2012 and an additional 9,500 individuals in 2022. All data were drawn from the Swedish Twin Registry. The study examined participants’ listening habits, particularly how much music they listened to and whether they used music listening to regulate their mood.

The researchers found no evidence that listening to more music in daily life is associated with better or worse mental health. Instead, the study showed that people experiencing depression, anxiety, loneliness or higher levels of neuroticism were more likely to use music listening to regulate their mood.

To better understand these relationships, the research team used twin analyses, as well as so-called polygenic indices reflecting genetic susceptibility to mental illness.

“When comparing genetically identical twins that differ in music listening habits, we found that the twin who listened to music to regulate mood was not more likely to have mental health problems. This suggests that shared familial factors, rather than listening to music itself, likely explain the relationship between music listening and mental health,” reports first author Laura Wesseldijk of the MPIEA.

Furthermore, listening to music does not appear to mitigate the effects of genetic susceptibility to mental illness. Senior author Miriam Mosing of the MPIEA concludes: “Our findings suggest that simply listening to more music in everyday life does not necessarily lead to better mental health. On the other hand, previous studies showed that structured music therapies designed to improve mental health can certainly have therapeutic benefits.”

These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing between targeted, therapeutically guided music interventions and everyday music listening habits. While structured music therapies can have positive effects, these benefits cannot be generalized to everyday listening habits.

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