Thank you for the music: Music as a social surrogate that protects against social threats

Social need fulfillment is imperative to well-being, leading to a strong motivation to ensure that social needs are met. The social surrogacy hypothesis proposes that individuals may use non-human social targets, including television characters, books, or comfort foods, to address social needs. The current work sought to examine the social surrogacy hypothesis in the domain of music. Utilizing both correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) methodology, the current research suggests that music can provide social benefits in response to social threats. In addition, it suggests that music may operate via multiple social surrogate pathways (Study 1) and that the benefits of music are social in nature (Study 2).