BlackMetalWhiteGuy
Manly Man!
The Mozart effect is highly questionable and under a great deal of scrutiny. It was only "proven" to work in one study, which further studies determined to have most likely been a sampling error. The reason the Mozart effect is even still taken seriously by the general public is that as soon as it was published, it was marketed like crazy and optimistic, but psychologically illiterate consumers ate it up, just like with the 10% brain myth. In fact, in many cases (especially with introverts) music is more of a distraction from other cognitive processes than a stimulant.
Music certainly does stimulate parts of the brain though and serves an adaptive purpose, and people who are more proficient with music generally score higher on IQ tests, but this is not acheived simply by listening to music. These are people who actively study music and participate in the musical process, which are exactly the types of people prone to having higher IQs regardless of their personal interests in music and art. This phenomenon is a statistical anomaly known as observer bias, which is another form of sampling error.
Music certainly does stimulate parts of the brain though and serves an adaptive purpose, and people who are more proficient with music generally score higher on IQ tests, but this is not acheived simply by listening to music. These are people who actively study music and participate in the musical process, which are exactly the types of people prone to having higher IQs regardless of their personal interests in music and art. This phenomenon is a statistical anomaly known as observer bias, which is another form of sampling error.
