How Effective is the Mozart Effect?
Until recently, there has been a tradition within social theory devoted to music’s power. This tradition can be seen Plato’s Republic. Socrates says, “[I]t seems that here in music, the guardians will build their guardhouse . . . Then, from the start, in their earliest play the young will be kept to law and measure through music.” This passage indicates that social order is fostered, in part, by aesthetic order, and that in turn is substantiated by the arts. For many, it is logical that music has effects. It is logical that music may allow more creativity to flow by removing some of the blocks to creativity, such as stress. However, it is difficult to prove the specific effects of music because it is difficult to measure emotions in lab experiences. It is even more difficult to quantify and prove music’s ability to enhance intelligence. The most famous results of research on learning and music revealed that music enhances children’s spatial reasoning ability. In 1993, Gordon Shaw, a ph
