Impact of Music on Prejudice: Unveiling the Role of Genre, Lyrics, Mood and Political Orientation

Music is a ubiquitous part of human life and accompanies people in everyday situations as well as important social events. Evolutionary perspectives propose that music serves functions related to coordination and communication. Consistent with these ideas, a substantial body of research shows that musical engagement strengthens social bonds, facilitates cooperation, and promotes prosocial behavior. Despite these well-established effects, it remains unclear whether and under what conditions music can shape attitudes toward outgroups. To address this gap, we examined how different types of music affect attitudes toward Middle Eastern refugees. In a between-subject experiment with 120 participants, individuals were assigned to one of four conditions: silence, a song with prosocial lyrics, an instrumental version of this song, or a stylistically matched Middle Eastern song. Prejudice was measured using a social distance scale and an allocation task focused on a refugee assistance project. Instrumental music reduced prejudice relative to the control condition, whereas music with prosocial lyrics did not show comparable effects. Political orientation moderated some of these outcomes: reductions in social distance appeared among more right-leaning participants, whereas among more left-leaning participants social distance scores were already low, suggesting a floor effect. None of the predicted mood mediations or the expected stronger effects among participants with higher trait empathy were found. These findings suggest that brief, lyric-free musical exposure may help reduce prejudice among individuals more prone to exclusionary attitudes, and that the social potential of music may rely more on its structural and emotional qualities than on explicit prosocial messages.