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This small study shows a positive association between music and stress response. Since music is important to most people using it to speak about social issues, racism, and other oppressions stand to reach more people. It stands to reason that including an important message or call to actio in a song would have a positive outcome.

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PLoS One. 2013; 8(8): e70156.

Abstract

Background

Music listening has been suggested to beneficially impact health via stress-reducing effects. However, the existing literature presents itself with a limited number of investigations and with discrepancies in reported findings that may result from methodological shortcomings (e.g. small sample size, no valid stressor). It was the aim of the current study to address this gap in knowledge and overcome previous shortcomings by thoroughly examining music effects across endocrine, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional domains of the human stress response.

Methods

Sixty healthy female volunteers (mean age = 25 years) were exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test after having been randomly assigned to one of three different conditions prior to the stress test: 1) relaxing music (' Miserere ', Allegri) (RM), 2) sound of rippling water (SW), and 3) rest without acoustic stimulation (R). Salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), subjective stress perception and anxiety were repeatedly assessed in all subjects. We hypothesized that listening to RM prior to the stress test, compared to SW or R would result in a decreased stress response across all measured parameters.

Results

The three conditions significantly differed regarding cortisol response ( p = 0.025) to the stressor, with highest concentrations in the RM and lowest in the SW condition. After the stressor, sAA ( p=0.026) baseline values were reached considerably faster in the RM group than in the R group. HR and psychological measures did not significantly differ between groups.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that music listening impacted the psychobiological stress system. Listening to music prior to a standardized stressor predominantly affected the autonomic nervous system (in terms of a faster recovery), and to a lesser degree the endocrine and psychological stress response. These findings may help better understanding the beneficial effects of music on the human body.

Introduction

The experience of stress arises when an individual perceives the demands from the environment '...as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being' [ 10]. Accordingly, physiologic stress effects are regulated by top-down central nervous system processes (= cognitive stress component, e.g. 'I can't cope with the situation'), as well as by sub-cortical processes within the limbic system (= emotional stress component, e.g. 'anxiety'). Both areas forward their messages (e.g. 'I am in danger!') via neuronal pathways to a central control system, the hypothalamus [ 11]. The hypothalamus is closely intertwined with two major stress systems, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) (= physiologic stress component, i.e. endocrine and autonomous responses). Together, the HPA axis and the SNS orchestrate various psychological (e.g. emotional processing) and physiological (e.g. endocrine and cardiovascular activation) processes to ensure the maintenance of the homeostasis of the organism that is challenged by the experience of stress [ 11- 13]. The main effector of the HPA axis is the so-called 'stress' hormone cortisol; its concentration is measured and evaluated in order to have an index for HPA axis activation [ 14, 15]. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a novel biochemical index for sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity [ 16- 19]. Both parameters obtained particular interest in stress research as unlike more traditional blood-derived stress markers (e.g. epinephrine and norepinephrine), they can conveniently be assessed in saliva. Taken together, the experience of stress is a multi-faceted phenomenon that comprises cognitive and emotional components that are closely intertwined with physiological systems, whose messengers / effectors found in saliva can be applied to objectively measure stress responses.

The research on beneficial effects on SNS parameters has a longer tradition: A series of clinical and laboratory-based studies revealed that listening to music can decrease sympathetic activity [ 28- 30]. However, positive SNS effects of listening to music are not consistently reported [ 30, 31]. It is conceivable that knowledge achieved from the effects of music on an additional SNS parameter, such as the newly established sAA, would help to increase understanding of inconsistent previous reports. However, to date no laboratory study exists that has investigated the effects of music on stress-induced sAA levels.

As listening to music has the capacity to initiate a multitude of cognitive processes in the brain [ 32], it might be assumed that music also influences stress-related cognitive processes and, as a consequence, physiological responses. Previous investigations found reductions in perceived levels of psychological stress, increased coping abilities, or altered levels in perceived relaxation after listening to music in the context of a stressful situation [ 7, 33]. Another line of research has focused on the effects of music on anxiety, which may be considered an adaptive response to the experience of stress. Given that music listening can trigger activity in brain regions linked to the experience of (intense) emotions [ 8, 34- 36], listening to music might also modulate anxiety levels induced by the experience of stress. Indeed, a decrease in anxiety after listening to music is the most consistent findings reported in field studies with patients [ 22, 37, 38] and laboratory-based studies [ 26, 39]. Nevertheless, not all investigations found anxiety reductions through music listening [ 40- 42]. Also here, no final conclusions can be drawn whether or how music is able to influence cognitive and emotional components of the stress response.

In sum, it appears that listening to music has the inherent ability to decrease the psychobiological stress response. However, due to the fact that the existing literature is not complete and often appears as inconsistent, definitive conclusions about the beneficial stress-reducing effect of music may be too premature. In light of these considerations, we set out to examine the effect of listening to music prior to a standardized stressor across neuroendocrine, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional domains of the human stress response in healthy participants in a laboratory setting. We put a special emphasis on the control of known influencing factors of the stress response and music effects, i.e. depression, anxiety, chronic stress, and emotion regulation traits. To the best of our knowledge, such an endeavor has not been attempted thus far. We hypothesized that those participants who listened to relaxing music prior to the stress task would show a different stress responses in terms of cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase, heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, subjective perception of stress, and anxiety when compared to non-music control groups, i.e. an acoustic control condition (sound of rippling water) and a control condition resting without acoustic stimulation.

Methods

Participants

Participants were recruited by advertisement at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich ( Figure 1 ). In a telephone screening, criteria for eligibility of interested participants (female sex, BMI between 18-25 kg/m ², 20-30 years of age, [Swiss] German as native language and a regular menstrual cycle) were verified. Female sex was chosen to control for gender differences, as sexual dimorphism in both the HPA axis response to psychosocial stress [ 48, 49] and in physiological and emotional responses to
9 music listening [ 6, 29, 50] have been observed in the past. Given their confounding effect on the organism in general, and the HPA axis in particular, exclusion criteria of the current study were the following; current depression, self-reported acute and chronic somatic or psychiatric disorders, medication, use of hormonal contraceptives, use of psychoactive substances, and excessive consumption of alcohol (> 2 alcohol beverages / day) or tobacco (> 5 cigarettes / day). Additionally, self-reported hearing deficits or tinnitus were exclusion criteria. Individuals with musical training were not included in the study. If eligibility requirements were met, and oral agreement was obtained, appointments were scheduled during the woman's follicular phase (days 4-10) of the menstrual cycle to control for hormonal variation throughout the menstrual cycle.

In advance of the appointment, participants were sent a set of information and several questionnaires (see below). In the advance material, participants were informed about the course of the study, but were not given detailed information about the experimental stress paradigm. Study language was (Swiss) German. Participants were instructed not to drink alcohol or caffeinated beverages 48 hours prior to the study. Additionally, they were told to refrain from any exercise activities 24 hours prior to the experiment. Further, participants were asked to refrain from brushing their teeth or eating at least 60 minutes before the study. For their participation in the study, the participants were reimbursed with 50 Swiss Francs.

An a priori power analysis was conducted to estimate the optimal sample size to answer the main hypothesis of a decreased cortisol response in the music group when compared to the control groups. It indicated that 54 participants were required to reach an 87% power for detecting an effect of 0.15 when employing an alpha criterion of 0.05 of statistical significance.

Ethics Statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committees of the University of Zurich and of the Canton of Zürich. Oral and written informed consent from all subjects was obtained.

General procedures

Study design

The experiment used a between subject design to compare the effect of acoustic stimulation (independent variable) on cortisol, sAA, HR, RSA, mood, and anxiety (dependent variables). There were three conditions prior to a stress test (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST, see description below): a music condition (relaxing music listening prior to stress test, RM), a water sound condition (an acoustic control condition including listening to sound of rippling water, SW) and a control condition (non-acoustic control condition including resting without acoustic stimulation, R). Seventy-eight participants fulfilled all study requirements and were randomly assigned to one of the groups. Eighteen participants were not able to keep their appointment (see Figure 1 ). Randomization was accomplished through the use of a computer generated randomization list.

Psychobiological stress induction

All participants underwent a standardized psychosocial laboratory stress protocol. The TSST consists of an introduction (Intro) that lasts 2 minutes in which participants are introduced to the procedure of the TSST. Specifically, they are told that the TSST consists of a public speaking task followed by a mental arithmetic task in front of an audience. In the public speaking task (lasting 5 minutes), participants are asked to apply for a job. In this simulated job interview, they are asked to talk about their personal qualifications for the chosen job, e.g. why they are a better fit for the job than other applicants. Right after the job interview, participants are explained the nature of the mental arithmetic task, which lasts for another 5 minutes. The participants have to calculate backwards in steps of 17 from the number 2043. After each calculation error the participants are asked to re-start calculating from 2043. The TSST has repeatedly been found to be a reliable tool to activate both the HPA axis and the autonomous nervous system (ANS) [ 51]. In the current study, the standard TSST procedure as reported in the literature was slightly modified: in the Intro, the subjects were not told about the exact nature of the upcoming speaking task (i.e. giving a speech as part of a simulated job interview) in order to prevent subjects from mentally preparing for the task.

Study procedure

For the current study, all examinations were conducted between 1200 and 1700h to minimize the confounding effect of the hormonal diurnal rhythm. Circadian fluctuations of hormone levels are particularly pronounced in the morning hours and flatten throughout the day [ 52, 53]. Participants arrived at the laboratory 60 min prior to the onset of the stress induction by the TSST ( Figure 2 ). Participants were then escorted to a non-intervention room, where they spent their waiting time between the actual experimental interventions. Immediately after arrival, participants were informed by the main experimenter about the course of the experiment. Oral and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Right afterwards, the LifeShirt, an electrophysiological measurement device (see below), was attached. After an adaptation period of 30 min, a basal saliva sample (T1, -30 min) was taken. Twenty minutes prior to the TSST, the participants were brought to the TSST room, where they were introduced by the main experimenter to the procedure of the TSST (= introduction: Intro, 2 min). The subjects were then brought to the intervention room, seated in a comfortable chair, and provided with headphones. All participants had to adjust a test signal (sinus tone, sound pressure = -70dB) to the individual hearing threshold level for the calibration of the volume. After this, the participants were to undergo their assigned condition, i.e. RM, SW, or R for ten minutes. No instruction was given for any of the conditions. Immediately after this part a second saliva sample was taken (T2, -5 min). Following this, subjects were taken back into the TSST room where they were undergoing the TSST. After the completion of the TSST, the subjects were then returned back the non-intervention room and a third saliva sample was taken (T3, + 10 min). Further samples were taken 15 min (T4, + 25 min), 30 min (T5, + 40 min), 45 min (T6, + 55 min), and 60 min (T7, + 70 min) after the TSST. In addition, the subjects completed various self-report stress measures (see below) at T1, before and after T2, at T3 and T4.

Music stimulus and acoustic control stimulus

' Miserere' by Allegri (CD Gimell 454 939-2) is a soothing and calming music piece (Latin choral singing) that was chosen to induce relaxation in our subjects. The stimulus was selected on the basis of previous research [ 6]. We decided to use a single standardized music stimulus, as this approach is thought to have a greater effect on stress reduction than music stimuli selected by the subjects themselves [ 54]. Further, we wanted to avoid possible influences of memory or subjective associations with self-chosen music stimuli by participants.

We included a non-music acoustic control condition, i.e. listening to sound of rippling water, in our study. This control condition has been chosen to control for effects on psychological and physiological parameters, which might be caused by mere acoustic stimulation alone. The sound of rippling water is missing the typical characteristics of music, such as a structured melody and rhythm. Still, it is an acoustic stimulus with a certain perceptual quality for the listener. What is more, in comparison to artificially produced sounds (such as white or pink noise or single tones), the sound of rippling water may be presented for longer periods of time without exerting stress or boredom in the listener [ 50].

Measures

Electrophysiological and biochemical measurement and analyses

Heart rate (HR) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured with the LifeShirt® System, an ambulatory detection system that allows the continuous monitoring of cardiorespiratory parameters [ 55], and edited manually to correct for ectopic beats with the VivoLogic 3.1 software (Vivometrics, Ventura, CA, USA). RSA is a measure for variations in HR within a breathing sequence; it is used as an indicator for parasympathetic cardiac control. HR and RSA were determined for 5-minute segments, ranging from a baseline interval prior to the Intro until 30 minutes after completion of the TSST.

For the analysis of cortisol (as an indicator of HPA axis activity) [ 15] and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA, as an indicator of autonomic activity) [ 16, 17], saliva was collected using small cotton swabs (Salivettes, Sarstedt, Sevelen, Switzerland). Stimulated saliva was taken by having the participants gently chewing the cotton roll for 1 min. Thereafter, the cotton roll was placed into a small plastic tube. Samples were stored at -20° C until biochemical analysis took place. Salivary free cortisol was determined by using a commercial chemiluminescence immunoassay (LIA) (IBL, Hamburg, Germany). Inter- and intraassay coefficients of variation were below 10%. All samples of one subject were analyzed in the same run to reduce error variance caused by imprecision of the intraassay. Activity in sAA was analyzed using the microplate reader Synergy HT Multi-Mode (BioTek) and adapted assay kits obtained from Roche. The assay is a kinetic colorimetric test. Inter- and intraassay variance was below 1%.

Psychometric measurements

Demographic information such as age, education, medication intake, nicotine use and illnesses were collected using a demographic questionnaire. Questionnaires were used to investigate the role of music preference and psychological factors.

The Music Preference Questionnaire (MPQ) [ 56] was used to assess participants' general preference for Classical music, also in relation with their general music preference for the most common music styles: Pop, Rap / Hip Hop, Latin, Soul / Funk, Hard Rock, Electro, New Age, Country, and Jazz music. On a 5-point Likert scale participants indicated how much they liked the particular music style (1 'not at all' to 5 'very much').

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) [ 57] was used to control for a possible impact of depression on the HPA axis response [ 58]. Scores higher than 18 are suggestive of clinically relevant depression.

Depending on the dispositional preferred emotion regulation strategy, different cognitions, emotions, and behavior may result in and after emotional situations. To control for the impact of how emotions are regulated in general the validated German version [ 59] of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) by Gross and John [ 60] was used. The ERQ assesses two common trait emotion regulation strategies, reappraisal and suppression. Higher values on each scale denote greater expressiveness of the respective variable.

Visual analog scales (VAS) were employed to repeatedly measure subjective perception of stress during the experiment. To control for the experience of chronic stress in our sample, we used the screening scale of the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS) [ 61], which assesses the global perceived chronic stress load of an individual with 12 items (Screening Scale of Chronic Stress, SSCS). Participants were required to rate how often they had experienced certain stressful situations during the past three months on a 5-point Likert scale. High values are indicative that the individual is often worried, overburdened, overstrained, and unacknowledged.

The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) [ 62] was used to assess anxiety. The STAI consists of two 20-items questionnaires which assess state respectively trait levels of anxiety in clinical and non-clinical populations. Scores for both scales range between 20 (low anxiety) and 80 (high anxiety). The STAI-state was used as a continuous measurement for possible changes in anxiety during the experiment. The STAI-trait was used to control for the effect of anxiety as a personality trait in our sample [ 63].

The stimuli questions were used to assess the subjective perception of either music or sound of rippling water. Subjects were required to rate how much they liked the stimulus, and how relaxing they perceived the stimulus on a 5-point Likert scale immediately after the stimulus presentation. High values are indicative for increased liking and of an increased relaxing effect of the stimulus.

Statistical analysis

Data analyses were performed using SPSS (17.0) software packages (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). Homogeneity of variance was tested using Levene's test before statistical analyses were applied. All reported results were corrected by the Greenhouse-Geisser procedure where appropriate (violation of sphericity assumption) [ 64, 65]. In case of missing data, cases were excluded list wise. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) for repeated measures were computed to analyze possible time, condition and interaction effects. For comparison of the scale means of the questionnaires with normative samples, Student's t-tests were computed. Cortisol (-30 min to + 70 min), alpha-amylase levels as well as heart rate measures (-30 min to + 40 min) were evaluated according to the area under the curve with respect to increase (AUC I). The AUC I is related to the sensitivity of the biological system; it is pronouncing changes over time, and is characterized by accumulation of the error of the baseline, as the formula is based on the difference between the baseline and the subsequent measures [ 66]. To estimate the extent of stress reactivity of cortisol, sAA, HR, and RSA, we calculated the delta measures of the stress responses (peak values after stressor minus baseline values before stressor), and refer to it as peak delta. For the estimation of a recovery value, we subtracted the first baseline value after the stressor from the peak values after the stressor (delta), and refer to it as recovery delta. Calculated measures of AUC I, peak delta and recovery delta were analyzed using ANCOVAs. For all analyses, results were considered statistically significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level, and were considered a trend at the p < 0.1 level. All tests were two-tailed. Unless indicated otherwise, all results shown are means ± standard deviations (SD).

Results

Sample characteristics

Sixty healthy female subjects participated in the study (age mean = 25.3 years, SD = 3.21 years; BMI (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) mean = 21.63, SD = 2.34; years of education mean = 15.3, SD = 2.56). Mean BDI scores of 5.5 (SD = 3.0; range = 0 - 17) indicate no clinically significant depressive symptom severity in our sample. Mean TICS summary scores of 17.32 (SD = 7.55; range = 0 - 36) indicate low levels of chronic stress load in our sample. Mean STAI-trait scores of 37.47 (SD = 9.86; range = 22-63) indicate low trait anxiety levels in our sample [see 62]. Regarding trait emotion regulation strategies, the mean scores of the two scales of the ERQ ( reappraisal mean 4.83, SD = 1.0; suppression mean 3.29, SD = 1.08) were in a comparable range to the female norm sample described by Gross and John [ 60]. Music preference for classical music was high in the current sample; only Pop music was preferred more (Classical music preference mean = 3.33, SD = 1.1; Pop music preference mean = 3.72, SD = 1.15). Randomization resulted in 20 participants undergoing the experimental condition (RM), 20 participants undergoing the non-music acoustic control condition (SW), and 20 participants undergoing the control condition without acoustic stimulation (R). The randomized assignment to groups was evaluated by comparing demographic variables (age, BMI, years of education), preference for Classical music, and means of all control variables (BDI, ERQ, STAI-trait, TICS) between groups (all p = n.s.) ( TABLE 1 ). We found no significant differences between groups.

Table 1

Characteristic

RM (n=20)

SW (n=20)

R (n=20)

p-valueª

Stimuli characteristics

Participants liked both acoustical stimuli (music: mean=3.21; SD=1.36; sound of rippling water: mean=3.84; SD=1.17) and both were perceived as relaxing (music: mean=4.0; SD=0.88; sound of rippling water: mean=4.0; SD=1.2). None of our participants in the acoustic stimulation groups expressed any negative comments about the stimuli (music / sound of rippling water).

Salivary cortisol responses

One participant of the RM condition and two participants of the R condition showed levels of cortisol that were more than 3 standard deviations higher than the mean. As a consequence, these participants were excluded from all further analyses. The stress protocol induced significant increases in salivary cortisol in all groups over time ( F(2.48/133.74)=18.46; p<0.001; η ²=0.255). Without including the control variables, repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no significant group differences (group-by-time interaction: F(4.95/133.74)=1.67; p=0.146; η ²=0.058). With the inclusion of the control variables (BDI, ERQ, STAI-trait, TICS), cortisol concentrations differed significantly between groups, with highest values in the RM and lowest values in the SW (group-by-time interaction: F(5.05/116.13)=2.68; p=0.025; η ²=0.104) ( Figure 3 ). Single controlled group comparisons revealed a significant difference between the RM and SW groups (group-by-time interaction: F(2.33/67.6)=4.72; p=0.009; η ²=0.140), but not between RM or SW when compared to R (all n.s.). Finally, univariate analyses revealed a significant difference between RM and SW in their peak delta ( F(1/29)=5.18; p=0.03; η ²=0.152), and in the AUC I, again between the groups RM and SW ( F(1/29)=4.7; p=0.039; η ²=0.139). No significant differences were found when RM and SW were compared to R regarding peak delta and AUC I.

Salivary alpha-amylase responses

sAA activity increased significantly over the course of the stress task ( F(2.62/146.82)=15.60; p<0.001; η ²=0.218). Without the inclusion of the control variables (i.e. BDI, ERQ, STAI-trait, TICS), repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no significant group differences (group-by-time interaction: F(5.24/146.82)=1.19; p=0.318; η ²=0.041). Also with the inclusion of the control variables, we found were no significant differences in sAA activity between groups (group-by-time interaction: F(4.96/119.01)=1.4; p=0.23; η ²=0.055) ( Figure 4 ). Univariate analyses however revealed a significant difference in the recovery delta between groups ( F(2/48)=4.13; p=0.022; η ²=0.147). Single group comparisons revealed a significant difference between RM and R ( F(1/31)=0.547; p=0.026; η ²=0.15) and between RM and SW ( F(1/29)=4.7; p=0.039; η ²=0.139) in the recovery delta; sAA activity in the RM condition is back at baseline at T4 (+ 25 min), compared to R or SW at T5 (+ 40 min).

Cardiac measures

Cardiac measures changed significantly over the course of the experiment over time (HR:F(3.16/151.77) = 122.05; p<0.001; η ²=0.027; RSA: F(3.3/158.49)=20.41; p<0.001; η ²=0.298). HR and RSA showed mirrored stress responses ( FIGURES 5 and ​and6). 6 ). Without the inclusion of the control variables (i.e. BDI, ERQ, STAI-trait, TICS), repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no significant group differences concerning HR (group-by-time interaction: F(6.32/151.77)=0.66; p=0.692; η ²=0.027) or RSA (group-by-time interaction: F(6.6/158.49)=0.86; p=0.533; η ²=0.035). Also with the inclusion of the control variables, groups did not significantly differ over the course of the experiment concerning HR (group-by-time interaction: F(5.73/103.2)=0.6; p=0.72; η ²=0.032) or RSA (group-by-time interaction: F(5.76/103.7)=0.96; p=0.456; η ²=0.05). However, groups significantly differed in the recovery delta of RSA (5 min after cessation of TSST) ( F(2/40)=4.06; p=0.025; η ²=0.169): Single group comparisons revealed a significant difference between SW and R ( F(1/27)=6.70; p=0.015; η ²=0.199), suggesting a faster recovery of SW after the TSST in RSA when compared to R.

Psychological stress measures

The subjective perception of stress during the experiment (VAS), as well as the anxiety (STAI-state) significantly changed over time: VAS and STAI-state increased from baseline to after the Intro of the TSST, deceased in response to the experimental and control conditions (T2, -5 min), increased in response to the TSST (T3, + 10 min) and decreased again thereafter (T4, + 25 min) (VAS: F(2.57/141.13)=18.79; p<0.001; STAI-state: F(2.9/50)=22.55; p<0.001). For all further analyses, we controlled for the influence of chronic stress (TICS) when analyzing the VAS scale of the perception of stress, and we controlled for the influence of trait anxiety (STAI-trait) when analyzing the STAI-state. Neither the VAS (group-by-time interaction: F(5.14/136.12)=0.79; p=0.562), nor the STAI-state (group-by-time interaction: F(5.79/141.87)=1.42; p=0.213) did significantly differ between groups.

Discussion

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of listening to relaxing music prior to a laboratory stressor on endocrine, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional responses in healthy women. We hypothesized that those participants who listened to relaxing music prior to a stress task would show different stress responses in comparison to non-music control groups, i.e. an acoustic control condition (sound of rippling water) and a control condition, resting without acoustic stimulation. With regard to endocrine responses, we found significant differences between the music and the acoustic control condition in cortisol: highest cortisol concentrations were observed in individuals who were listening to music prior the stress task, lowest concentrations were found in those who were listening to the sound of rippling water. Although there was no significant effect of music regarding autonomic responses, we observed a trend towards a faster recovery in sAA activity and in RSA in the music group. As for psychological measures, we did not find significant differences between the three groups.

The lack of a decreased cortisol response in the music group corroborates findings of a previous study by Knight and Rickard [ 26]. To the best of our knowledge, that investigation is the only laboratory-based study in which the influence of music listening prior to a stressor was investigated. However, the explanatory power of the findings was somewhat limited as the authors did not apply a stressor that was strong enough to elicit a significant cortisol stress response and that participants were examined in small groups (6-12 participants per condition). As for the latter, recent research has suggested that music interventions might be more effective on an individual compared to the group level [ 54]. Nevertheless, even though we applied a significant stressor and tested our participants one-by-one, we did not find an attenuation of stress-induced cortisol levels after music listening.

We did not expect the observed relative increase of cortisol concentrations in the music group in comparison to the control groups. Our findings seem to be the opposite from what the majority of previous studies have reported when investigating the effect of music on baseline HPA axis functioning, i.e. a significant decrease in cortisol concentrations [ 67- 77]. Our findings also seem to differ from the effects of music, when music is presented during (suppressed cortisol response) [ 73] or after a stressor (decreased cortisol response) [ 5]. Interpreting our findings in the light of these studies, we may deduce that the beneficial effect of music on HPA axis functioning depends on situational context (rest vs. stress) and chronology of events (prior vs. during vs. after stress). A possible explanation for the context-dependent influence may be the involvement of certain brain areas and their subdivisions, such as for instance the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, in both listening to music and stress processing [ 8, 34, 36, 78- 80]. It appears that music listening prior to the experience of stress may add to, facilitate, or increase subsequent HPA axis activation by a staggered activation of a partly shared neuronal network. Brain-imaging studies are needed to investigate whether there is indeed a specific 'combinational' effect of music and stress.

It is of great interest that the lowest concentrations of cortisol were observed in the acoustic control condition (i.e. listening to the sound of rippling water). Given that, to the best of our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the effects of natural sounds on stress-related HPA axis responses, we did not anticipate this outcome. The sound of rippling water was equally preferred and perceived as relaxing as music by our participants. This may be a hint to differential effects on the HPA axis of music and non-music acoustic stimulation. Due to the lack of studies on neuronal activation patterns of natural sounds it is difficult to determine the exact mechanisms for this effect, though. Although unexpected, the finding of decreased cortisol concentrations in the acoustic control condition is of potentially great relevance and may increase our understanding of mechanisms of beneficial interventions in natural environments, based on the concept of biophilia for instance [ 81, 82]. According to this view, humans, who have lived in natural environments throughout evolution, are equipped with brains / mental functioning that "...subconsciously seek connection with all that is alive and vital" (p. 4660) [ 81]. As a consequence, humans indeed feel more comforted in natural than in urban environments. Lingering in natural environments, such as for instance in a forest, has been found to have significant beneficial physiological effects [ 83]. Accordingly, a detachment from natural environments might lead to decreased physical and psychological well-being [ 84]. It might therefore be reasoned that the sound of rippling water in our study had a relaxation effect stronger than that of music, due to its inherent characteristics as a sound of nature. Of course, this notion is highly speculative. More studies are needed to examine the differential endocrine effects of natural and non-natural acoustic sound stimulation.

We observed a differential influence of music listening on autonomic activity: music resulted in a faster autonomic recovery after stress compared to the control groups. This partly corresponds with findings from an investigation by Arai et al. [ 85] who found significantly decreased sAA levels at wound closure in patients who listened to intra-operative music when compared to a non-music control condition. Music might thus facilitate autonomic recovery from a stressor in comparison to listening to non-musical sounds or no acoustic stimulation. The fact that our finding only showed a statistical trend narrows its relevance, however. Other investigations assessing the effects of music on the ANS (e.g. via epinephrine and norepinephrine) have found no beneficial effects [ 37, 86]. As for cardiac measures, we found a decrease in HR and an increase in RSA in response to RM, SW, and R. After stress exposure, we found an increase in HR and a decrease in RSA. On the one hand, these findings correspond to investigations that found an increase of parasympathetic activity in response to sedative music listening [ 87- 89]. On the other hand, our results corroborate findings from studies reporting decreased parasympathetic activity in response to stress [ 90, 91]. As with sAA, we found a trend for a faster recovery of the RSA in the music group when compared to the resting control group. It appears that music listening might be effective in accelerating the recovery process of the parasympathetic branch of the ANS. It is interesting, however, that the sound of rippling water was even more effective than music in returning RSA levels back to baseline. Clearly, further studies are warranted for further eliciting the differential physiological effects of music and non-music acoustic stimulation.

Taken together, our results seem to indicate that pre-stress music listening might not be effective in reducing the biopsychological stress response, but might, in contrast, add to or facilitate a stress response. However, our results may also be interpreted in the light of another explanation: it may be that the participants in the music group were actually so relaxed that the subsequent stress induction was incompatible with this state of relaxation, and that they produced an increased stress response as a consequence. We might have therefore measured the effect of the contrast between a relaxing and a stressful state rather than the preparatory effects of relaxing music on the subsequent stress response. This notion is supported by the greatest increase in stress perception in the relaxing music group. Future studies should follow-up on this explanation and further dissect the effects of preparatory music listening on stress responses.

Although this is the first study in which the effect of pre-stress music listening on a multitude of stress response domains was examined in the context of a rigorously controlled laboratory setting, our findings need to be considered in the light of the following limitations.

Selection of music stimulus

Standardized music stimuli, selected by the researchers, might have different effects than those chosen by the participants themselves. In our study, however, we used a music stimulus which had already been evaluated as relaxing in previous research [ 6], so we were confident that this stimulus had stress-attenuating capacity independent of individual preferences. Also, using researcher-selected music stimuli has been shown to have greater effects on stress reduction than music stimuli selected by the subjects themselves [ 54].

Sample

The focus on healthy young female participants, which were non-smoking, not taking any oral contraceptives, and being in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, restricts the generalization of the results beyond this particular sample. While the exclusion of potential confounding variables certainly improves internal validity, further research should investigate men also, as well as a mixed sample of men and women with more liberal inclusion criteria in order to reach more general conclusions.

In summary, the findings of the present study demonstrate that listening to relaxing music prior to a stress task differentially affects biological stress response domains. Listening to relaxing music prior to a stressor did not decrease the endocrine stress response, but tended to increase it. Moreover, music listening helped the ANS to recover from a stressor more efficiently. Cognitive and emotional processes did not seem to be differently influenced by listening to relaxing music compared to listening to the sound of rippling water or resting with no acoustic stimulation prior to a stressor. As a consequence, our findings do not fully support the notion of using music listening as a successful stress management tool, at least not in the context of anticipating an upcoming stressor. Certainly, the potential health implications of the observed increase in HPA axis activation and the faster recovery of the ANS through listening to relaxing music are worth mentioning and should be further studied in order to better understand the potentially positive effects of music on the human body.

Acknowledgments

We thank the study subjects and acknowledge the assistance of Eliane Horat in co-conducting the study.

Funding Statement

This study was supported by a grant from the Young Investigator Grant of the University of Zurich: ( http://www.researchers.uzh.ch/promotion/forschungskredit_en.html). Grant no: 56233208 (MVT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

References

28. Bartlett DL (1996) Physiological responses to music and sound stimuli. In: Hodges DA. Handbook of music psychology. San Antonio: University of Texas; pp. 343-385. [ Google Scholar]

30. Hodges DA (2010) Psychophysiological responses to music. In: Juslin JA, Sloboda JA. Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications. New York: Oxford University Press; pp. 279-311. [ Google Scholar]

46. Thoma MV, Ryf S, Mohiyeddini C, Ehlert U, Nater UM (2011) Emotion regulation through listening to music in everyday situations. Cogn Emot. [ PubMed]

62. Laux L, Glanzmann P, Schaffner P, Spielberger CD (1981) Das State-Trait-Angstinventar. Theoretische Grundlagen und Handanweisungen. Weinheim: Beltz.

Articles from PLOS ONE are provided here courtesy of PLOS

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The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response

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Music listening has been suggested to beneficially impact health via stress-reducing effects. However, the existing literature presents itself with a limited number of investigations and with discrepancies in reported findings that may result from methodological ...

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Music is an amazing way to convey messages not previously realized. I intend to make a soundtrack for the book that focuses on the deeper meanings if racism and irony

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12 Nursery Rhymes You Didn't Know Were Racist

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Children utilize nursery rhymes when playing games or learning to read and count. However, the lyrics to many of these seemingly innocent songs have dark origins. Read Full Story: http://bit.ly/2e07dAQ

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What a sad term! I want to use this terminiology and its explanation to show how Whitehead is both telling readers this exists and showing them through determination we can fight back.

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Scherff designed a lesson plan with several essential questions for her students.
1.  What are the different forms of racism in the novel?
2. How does power operate in the novel?
Both questions lend themselves to a discussion of different opinions and views on race and power. I hope to discuss several different possible views and highlight bias/irony in them

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A source that highlights disparities between white and black children in foster care. In particular, how it is ironic that white systems don't want black workers, yet due to the lack of black representation, black children are not treated fairly. This ties into the Nickel Boys, Dozier School etc.

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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10677-020-10105-z

Great study on the various uses of irony that can be seen in much literature. Certain segments, such as "the disruption of our practical Identity" and "moral suspicion" and "moral" imperfection can be tied to the situational and dramatic irony Whitehead relies on for readers to tap into their understandings and bias. I will use this source to help explain each type of irony in the story.

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Introduction

The moral status of irony is suspicious. Philosophers (e.g. Blackburn 1998; Kierkegaard 1989 [ 1841]) and cultural critics (e.g. Rosenblatt 2001; Wampole 2012, 2016) often decry irony as spineless whimsy. The usual suspicion is that irony equals detachment from moral responsibility and earnestness. In defiance of these suspicions, Jonathan Lear ( 2011) boldly proposes that we should cultivate irony to achieve human excellence. For Lear, irony is an uncanny disruption of our practical identity which does not disorient us, but rather directs us toward virtue.

Lear's account is problematic because he insists that existentially relevant irony is radically different from irony as a figure of speech, i.e. 'communicative irony' (Lear 2001, 5; passim). This oversight is especially problematic because communicative irony is what most people routinely conceive irony to be. At the same time, Lear's understanding of communicative irony as "saying the opposite of what one means" ( 2011, 6)-although classical and seminal (see Vlastos 1991)-is outdated, and has long been rejected by philosophers working in aesthetics (Currie 2006, 2011) and at the interface of philosophy and linguistics (Sperber and Wilson 2012).

Lear's account is indicative of how philosophers are often at cross-purposes when investigating irony, which is why there still much confusion and misunderstanding about the topic (see Bernstein 2016, 1). In this article, I argue that the morally suspicious reputation of irony unduly persists because the irony which is existentially and morally relevant has not been primarily understood as an offshoot of communicative irony. Redressing this oversight, I do not conclude that irony is by default morally virtuous. Yet, equally, irony is also not by default morally suspicious. Rather, irony is a form of emotional distancing which can mediate the unavoidable disruption of moral imperfection in our lives, when applied with the right measure, in the right circumstances.

This article has four more sections. In section 2, I develop an overview of Lear's account of irony as uncanny disruption. Section 3 critiques the idiosyncrasy of Lear's account by providing an overview of different kinds of irony and introducing a new form of complex communicative irony, which I call 'ironic characters'. In section 4, I ague that ironic characters can mitigate the disruption of moral imperfection. I challenge Lear's proposal that disruption inherently reorients us toward excellence. Instead, I introduce value incompatibility as an unavoidable disruption in our moral lives, which risks breaking down practical deliberation and compromise mental wellbeing. Section 5 concludes by framing the urgency of disruptive value incompatibility in the context of globalized information technology.

Lear on Irony

Such disruption is ironic when it "manifests an inchoate intimation that there is something valuable about teaching" (Lear 2011, 19). In other words, the lecturer may not know what 'teaching' is, only that activities commonly associated with being a 'teacher' (like marking) fall woefully short of the ideal; yet, they do intuit that such a valuable ideal exists. Therefore, Lear calls ironic disruption an "experience of would-be-directed uncanniness" ( 2011, 19, original emphasis). In such an uncanny experience, everything that was once familiar about 'teaching' has now become unfamiliar, but there is nonetheless an embryonic desire toward excellence. Therefore, Lear identifies irony as " erotic uncanniness" ( 2011, 117, original emphasis).

According to Lear, "[i]t is constitutive of human excellence that one develop a capacity for appropriately disrupting one's understanding of what such excellence consists in" (2011, 37). For example, to achieve excellence as a 'teacher', the lecturer must harness the force of ironic disruption to transcend received social understandings of teaching and tap into an otherwise inaccessible direction toward human excellence (Lear 2011, 25). Although human excellence does not involve experiencing such disruption all the time, we should cultivate "practical wisdom about when it is appropriate to deploy irony" (Lear 2011, 30).

Lear's account introduces a sense of existential disruption that is undoubtedly familiar. Just think of academics who are at a loss about what it means to be a 'teacher' in a market environment where students are consumers. The lecturer from my example may find themselves at loose ends because they are unsure what 'keeping the customer satisfied' has to do with being a 'teacher' - but, equally, they do not know how else to be a 'teacher' given the marketization of higher education. Although this experience is unsettling, Richard Bernstein rightfully notes that there is something valuable about "an uncanny experience that provokes a search for new direction" (2016, 45). In this respect, Lear frames his account as an "attempt to use the force of disruption in a creative, poetic manner, instead of suffering from it or being confused by it" (Sholl 2011, 9, my translation).

However, it is not entirely clear exactly how irony succeeds to overcome the mental suffering or confusion of disruption. Lear acknowledges that "getting the hang of it does not come that easily", so irony is hardly a strategy that is readily available in practical deliberation ( 2011, 31). Moreover, the nature and force of Lear's irony is equally difficult to comprehend without actually experiencing it. Although this gnomic quality is integral to irony on Lear's account, it means that only the initiated can grasp how irony directs us toward human excellence. In section 4, I further argue that Lear's account overlooks that achieving the ideal of excellence is often not possible, as in the case of being a 'teacher' in a market environment, which often involves compromising between ideal and reality. In those cases, irony is useful not because it directs us to human excellence, but because it helps us deal with the disruption of moral imperfection.

First, I move onto disputing that Lear's uncanny disruption is really (a central form of) irony. Therefore, Lear's account fails to rebut common moral suspicions about irony in philosophy and cultural criticism. Lear identifies the "contemporary cultural reception of irony" as a "defense against getting rattled by one's own commitments" ( 2011, 119). He specifically refers to the "ataraxia" on offer in Richard Rorty's defence of the liberal ironist (Lear 2011, 119). For Rorty ( 1989), an ironist is someone who knows that their central values have been shaped by contingency (e.g. as opposed to my friend, I happened to grow up in a Catholic family, but the situation could easily have been reversed). Aware of such unavoidable contingency, the ironist is "never quite able to take themselves seriously" (Rorty 1989, 73-74).

Irony's professed lack of commitment to values is morally suspicious. Simon Blackburn dismisses Rotry's ironist as a "weightless aesthete, to whom all real commitment is a subject of joke or parody" and argues that if we are serious about ethics, "we can safely set the irony aside" (1998, 290). The early Kierkegaard is similarly suspicious of irony, which he (following Hegel) defines as infinite absolute negativity (1989 [1841]). John Lippitt ( 2000, 149) links Kierkegaard's infinite absolute negativity to Wayne Booth's concept of "unstable irony" ( 1974, 240), a nihilistic attitude which refuses to affirm anything. Kierkegaard discerns this attitude in Socrates, whom he therefore dismissed "as a self-centred and politically apathetic figure" (Söderquist 2007, 82), rejecting "earnestness about anything" (Frazier 2006, 114).

The moral suspicion that irony equals political apathy also permeates cultural criticism. Roger Rosenblatt famously hoped that the "horror" of 9/11 "could spell the end of the age of irony" (2001). According to Rosenblatt, the American public sphere was characterised by "detachment and personal whimsy", which meant that "even the most serious things were not to be taken seriously" ( 2001). Yet, a decade later, Christy Wampole still decried that "irony is the ethos of our age" ( 2012). For Wampole, irony is a "self-defensive mode" of "dissimulation" through which hipsters and other white middle-class Millennials "dodge responsibility for [their] choices" ( 2012). Especially after the election of Donald Trump, Wampole strongly urged to abandon irony in favour of sincerity and seriousness ( 2016). Her plea shares the aspirations for a new sincerity or post-ironic society first advanced by David Foster Wallace ( 1993).

Cultural critics and philosophers often associate irony with morally undesirable qualities, including apathy, cynicism, detachment, dissimulation, nihilism, and whimsy. They similarly dissociate irony from morally desirable qualities like earnestness, commitment, responsibility, and seriousness. In defiance of these suspicions, Lear argues that cultivating a capacity for irony is really "an expression of earnestness and commitment" ( 2011, 38). He therefore dismisses the usual moral suspicions about irony as misplaced concerns about "a derivative form" ( 2011, 9). According to Lear, "[w]e tend to think casually of "the ironist" as someone who is able to make certain forms of witty remarks, perhaps saying the opposite of what he means, of remaining detached by undercutting any manifestation of seriousness" ( 2011, 9). Following the later Kierkegaard (and his pseudonyms), Lear dismisses this routine understanding by claiming that "[i]rony is an existence-determination, so nothing is more ridiculous than to suppose it to be a figure of speech" (Johannes Climacus, cited in Lear 2011, XIII).

What Is Irony?

'Irony' can refer to multiple phenomena, which is why philosophers and critics risk equivocating on its meaning or unduly stretch its extension. Concretely, Bernstein worries that Lear's departure from routine understandings of irony is "so radical that he opens himself up to the charge that he is simply changing the subject" - especially because "for Lear, irony has (essentially) nothing to do with language" (2016, 37-38). To establish greater clarity, I outline four main types of irony: situational irony (an experience), the irony relevant to moral evaluation (an attitude), communicative irony (a rhetorical trope) and dramatic irony (a narrative technique). I identify Lear's ironic disruption as a peripheral form of situational irony which is unrelated to the phenomenon that commonly invites moral suspicion. I also attenuate those common moral suspicions by introducing an alternative account, which frames existentially relevant irony as an offshoot of communicative irony.

Situational irony "requires a contrast between a norm or expectation or ambition on the one hand and reality on the other" (Currie 2011, 164). This contrast is hard to define but involves an experience of the universe frustrating human affairs in a seemingly planned and perversely perfect way. For example, there is no inherent irony about receiving unemployment benefits, but it is ironic when exactly that person who has always fulminated against benefits now depends on them for their livelihood. Another classic example of situational irony is a person who worked hard all their life, only to die the day before retiring. Lear's experience of uncanny disruption can be charitably framed as a peripheral kind of situational irony.

For Lear, irony involves the experience of a "gap" between the received understanding and implied ideal of a practical identity ( 2011, 11). Such a gap arguably involves the perversely perfect contrast that characterises situational irony. For example, the marketization of higher education may feel deeply ironic to a university lecturer for whom being a 'teacher' always seemed to involve critical thinking about society, including capitalism. Nevertheless, erotic uncanniness, the defining feature of Lear's irony, is unrelated to situational irony. A grieving child, who ponders their father's death on the day of his pension, may well think it is ironic but does not experience "an inchoate intimation" of human excellence ( 2011, 11).

Pace Lear, when philosophers and cultural critics worry about irony, they do not worry about an experience (of a contrast between ideal and reality), but about an attitude (of detachment). Yet, like Lear, they rarely address what exactly makes this attitude ironic. To redress this problem, I propose that for some attitude to be ironic, it must share an attitudinal quality with communicative irony. This link has been overlooked, mostly because philosophers and cultural critics who are interested in the moral and existential dimensions of irony have typically not engaged with debates about communicative irony. Hence, philosophers like Lear tend to have an obsolete understanding of communicative irony as "saying the opposite of what one means" ( 2011, 6).

However, there is now a consensus that "what irony conveys is not a figurative meaning but an attitude", specifically dissociation from an unreasonable perspective (Sperber and Wilson 2012, 141; see also Currie 2006, 112-113). Irony can be jovial, playful, biting, or caustic (see Hutcheon 1985, 45), but it always involves dissociation from a thought attributed to a certain target. Ironic communication is a kind of stancetaking, whereby language users express a dissociative stance in relation to a proposition (see Burgers et al. 2011, 305). Therefore, I propose that for an attitude to be called 'irony', it must involve such dissociative stancetaking.

There are currently two main rival theories of communicative irony, the echoic theory (Sperber and Wilson 2012) and the pretence theory (Currie 2011). Both theories agree that communicative irony is essentially the expression of a dissociative attitude toward a perspective but disagree about the mechanics behind this process. Suppose I mock a colleague's suggestion by ironically saying "That's a great idea!" According to the echoic theory of irony, I do not communicate that thought as my own, but instead tacitly attribute it to my colleague, in order to tacitly dissociate myself from it (by implying that I find the idea ridiculous). By contrast, on the pretence theory, I do not engage in a sincere speech act, but only pretend to assert this defective viewpoint, to ridicule my colleague who genuinely occupies a similar perspective. In both cases, ironic communication is implicit, and my colleague is left to infer my dissociative attitude.

Of the two rival theories, the pretence theory seems particularly suited to clarify what makes certain morally suspicious attitudes ironic. As discussed, cultural critics and philosophers often associate irony with a detached and whimsical attitude devoid of sincerity, and pretence is often associated with insincerity. Bernard Williams argues that "a sincere assertion will be one made by someone who himself believes that P" while "an insincere assertor (...) pretends to express his belief" ( 2002, 57). Williams highlights that this characterisation also applies to ironic communication ( 2002, 57). These connections reveal a conceptual kinship, if not confusion, between irony, pretence, and insincerity, which also characterises debates about morally suspicious irony. This confusion needs to be untangled to bring greater clarity to the moral evaluation of irony.

First, even if irony really involves pretence, not all morally suspicious pretence is ironic. Consider ironically liking a music genre, which would involve pretending to like that genre, as a targeted act of dissociation from those that genuinely do like it. Hence, ironically liking a genre of music is not the same as inauthentically indulging in unsophisticated music choices (by pretending not to really enjoy them). In this respect, the Dutch and Flemish radio station QMusic regularly hosts Foute Parties, where people enjoy music genres that would otherwise be considered a faux pas (i.e. 'fout'). Such behaviour is not strictly speaking ironic, because it is not in the first place targeted at people who genuinely like that music (see Currie 2006, 116ff). Instead, it is an insincere form of aesthetic appreciation, which permits people to indulge in music genres they cannot sincerely like, for fear of social marginalization.

The same goes for indulging in other taboo tastes, like racist humour. For example, 'hipster racism' is typically decried as kind of irony indulged in by "white, often progressive people who think they are hip to racism, which they mistakenly believe gives them permission to say and do racist things without actually being racist" (Rachel Dubrofsky in Mahdawi 2017). Imagine someone who knows why dressing up in blackface for a party is wrong, but does it anyway, because they profess that their knowingness excuses their behaviour as simply 'joking around'. When criticized, they might defend their actions by claiming that they were just 'being ironic'. Such behaviour is certainly morally problematic, but to be ironic, it must involve more than just a flippant and knowing attitude about racism. Instead, real irony would be targeted at people who are serious about racism - which is still morally problematic, but at least involves genuinely taking a stand on a political issue.

A related case is a specific kind of online trolling which disavows its actual intent. It is a strategy among the alt-right to distribute racist memes under the motto of provoking backlash from progressive critics, who are ridiculed for failing to see that the content was 'ironic'. Nevertheless, these memes are genuinely racist, and the professed dissimulation serves to create a greater tolerance for alt-right ideologies by making it acceptable to endorse them 'ironically' (Marwick and Lewis 2015, 1). Such activity may also cause so-called "irony poisoning", as in the case of a German man who ended up trying to burn down the house of a refugee after 'ironically' exchanging racist memes (Fisher and Taub 2018). Such attitudes are certainly dangerous but not ironic simply because they involve communication which professes not to endorse its literal message or conceals its actual intent. If such attitudes are sometimes ironic, it only when they involve an active dissociation from those who find such content repellent (like progressives who do not find racism funny).

Hence, some attitudes which are morally suspicious because insincere are sometimes too quickly or even mistakenly labelled as ironic. Such conflation unduly fuels moral suspicion about irony. Perhaps the association with pretence facilitates such undue extension or makes irony appear more insincere than it really is. Still, although the rival echoic theory outlines an understanding of irony that is divorced from pretence, it is not altogether incompatible with inauthenticity. Somebody who constantly echoes defective tastes and behaviours tacitly attributed to somebody else, without affirming their own values, certainly does not live an authentic life. Worries that too much irony is morally problematic are therefore justified. Nevertheless, if ironic attitudes are reframed as an offshoot of communicative irony, it should be clear they are not by default morally suspicious.

In fact, irony can and has been put to philosophical use. Consider Voltaire's Candide, the great Enlightenment satire of Leibnizian optimism. Candide cultivates a complex irony which I call 'ironic characters'. Ironic characters are a ploy in the ironic communication of authors by asserting viewpoints in a fictional world which audiences are cued to understand as similar to deficient viewpoints held by real people. They typically serve a satirical function in an author's critique of some unreasonable perspective. Most importantly, they can be virtuously integrated into a legitimate philosophical project, as Voltaire demonstrates in his philosophical critique of Leibniz.

One ironic character, which Voltaire introduces, is Professor Pangloss, who purports that "things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessarily for the best end" (1918 [1759], 2). Pangloss supports this argument with questionable observations like "the nose has been formed to bear spectacles-thus we have spectacles" and "[l]egs are visibly designed for stockings-and we have stockings" (Voltaire 1918 [ 1759], 2-3). Although it remains implicit in Candide, Pangloss is clearly a stand-in for Leibniz and his optimism that God has created the best of all possible worlds. Using ironic characters like Pangloss, Voltaire dissociates himself from what he considers Leibniz's absurd optimism. Below, I argue that such dissociative stancetaking through ironic characters can be virtuously used to mediate disruption in our moral lives. To understand why, we first need to inspect more closely how ironic characters function as irony.

Ironic characters are similar to, but ultimately different from, another main type of irony, i.e. dramatic irony. According to Gregory Currie, dramatic irony involves the fictional representation of situational irony (2006, 127-128). It is a narrative technique through which audiences are given access to salient information lacked by some character in a fiction, who, as a result of lacking that information, acts in a way that undermines their aspirations in a perversely perfect manner. A canonical example of dramatic irony is Oedipus's search (in Oedipus Rex) for the murderer of King Laius, which the audience knows is himself. Dramatic irony is also often exploited for comic purposes, as in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, in which the audience has an overview of how the various characters aim to deceive each other, which they themselves lack.

Similarly, while Pangloss is unaware of the deficiency of his beliefs, the audience are in the know. Yet, while characters who are victim to dramatic irony are the sole butt of the joke (in the fiction), ironic characters like Pangloss tacitly put audiences in mind of real-life targets from whom the author tacitly dissociates themselves. In Oedipus Rex, the only victim of irony is Oedipus himself, while the real target of Voltaire's irony is ultimately not Pangloss, but Leibniz. Hence, ironic characters showcase the tacit attribution and dissociation essential to communicative irony, which characters oblivious to dramatic irony lack. Moreover, audiences are supposed to get that Pangloss is intentionally designed by Voltaire to express thoughts which contrast with their own thoughts about real affairs. By contrast, for dramatic irony, audiences only need to grasp a contrast between their knowledge about the fictional world and the internal perspectives of characters.

For these reasons, unlike dramatic irony, ironic characters are a proper extension of communicative irony, because they serve as ploys in the ironic communication of their authors. Crucially, the narrative structure of ironic characters is incompatible with the kind of pretence stipulated by the pretence theory, which is why the echoic theory ultimately affords a better understanding of communicative irony. On the pretence theory, "the pretence that is fundamental to irony is not a pretence of doing; it's a pretence of being. In pretending to assert or whatever, one pretends to be a certain kind of person-a person with a restricted or otherwise defective view of the world or some part of it" (Currie 2006, 116). The idea is that "the most efficient way for an ironic speaker to criticize the foolishness of people is not only to pretend to behave in a foolish manner but to pretend to be a foolish person" (Popa-Wyatt 2014, 138, original emphasis).

This kind of pretence of being is not compatible with what Voltaire is doing in Candide. Consider again Pangloss, who argues that "[p]igs were made to be eaten-therefore we eat pork all the year round. Consequently, they who assert that all is well have said a foolish thing, they should have said all is for the best" (Voltaire 1918 [ 1759], 3). Although this sentence is uttered by Pangloss, it is really written by Voltaire to put readers in mind of Leibnizian optimism, from which he dissociates himself. On the pretence theory, Voltaire must therefore pretend to be someone with a deficient viewpoint. Clearly, as the author of Candide, Voltaire does not pretend to be Pangloss, or indeed any other character in the fiction. He also cannot pretend to be someone outside the fiction who asserts these viewpoints, because it is Pangloss who does the asserting in the fiction.

Nevertheless, Voltaire could pretend to be an author who endorses the deficient thoughts asserted by Pangloss, or at least fails to see their deficiency. This option involves what Currie calls a "second author", whereby an author makes it "fictional that someone other than herself is the author of [a] fictional story" (2010, 70-71). However, this solution inadequately captures the successful uptake of ironic characters, which involves what Wayne Booth calls a "secret communion" between author and reader (1983, 300). Booth explains that "[i]n the irony with which we are concerned, the speaker [in a narrative fiction] is himself the butt of the ironic point. The author and reader are secretly in collusion, behind the speaker's back, agreeing upon the standard by which he is found wanting" (1983, 304). The second-author solution falters in the case of Candide, because Voltaire is really in a secret communion with audiences behind the back of Pangloss (who asserts the deficient viewpoints), not behind the back of some imaginary author (who endorses them).

By contrast, whereas the pretence theory fails to explain the successful uptake of ironic characters, the echoic theory can easily explain why Voltaire's communication is ironic. Voltaire echoes Leibniz's thoughts by creating a fiction in which Pangloss endorses thoughts that are similar in content to Leibniz's. Voltaire's communicative act is tacit because it remains implicit that he really attributes Pangloss's thoughts to Leibniz. Moreover, Voltaire also does not explicitly state that he really dissociates himself from those thoughts. The audience are left to infer the real meaning of Voltaire's utterance. For this reason, an undiscerning reader or someone unfamiliar with Leibniz's optimism might miss the irony altogether. These characteristics of ironic characters are prototypical of communicative irony and can easily be explained by the echoic theory.

Ironic characters testify to irony's complexity and its meritorious contributions to a philosophical project like Voltaire's critique of Leibnizian optimism. The philosophical legitimacy of Candide proves that the dissociative stancetaking of irony is not by default detached dissimulation. In this respect, it is particularly puzzling that Lear ascribes the prevalence of moral suspicion to "the tendency in the culture to treat irony as satire" ( 2011, 119). Clearly, satire like Voltaire's Candide is hardly a pinnacle of detachment and whimsy. Moreover, the use of ironic characters in satire, as dissociation from absurd ideals, can serve as a uniquely valuable response to disruption in our moral lives. To understand why, we must consider how the disruption of moral imperfection sometimes prevents us from achieving human excellence.

Ironic Characters and Moral Imperfection

It is not merely the case that Lear's uncanny disruption is a peripheral form of irony; I also doubt that it (always) orients us toward human excellence. Concretely, there are occasions of disruption when erotic uncanniness cannot orient us toward excellence in our practical identity because it would clash with achieving excellence in another practical identity. Such disruption, which follows from value incompatibility, is unavoidable in our moral lives and can cause mental suffering. To sustain mental wellbeing, we need to accept our limits in achieving human excellence, i.e. our moral imperfection. Ironic characters can play a virtuous role in this process by offering us emotional distance which soothes mental suffering. Specifically, the dissociative stancetaking inherent in ironic characters can be put to virtuous use in negotiating a mean between too much disruption (a complete breakdown of practical deliberation in face of one's imperfection) and too little disruption (complete insensitivity toward one's imperfection).

The disruption of value incompatibility arises when the values embedded in multiple practical identities clash. Valerie Tiberius explains that "[i]f my conception of how to live requires doing everything I can to prevent extreme suffering and paying special attention to my friends and family, then I will never be in a position to reflect on my life and assess that I am meeting all of my own standards, or even coming close to it" (2008, 179). In other words, I may experience disruption because my values and obligations as a parent clash with my commitments as a volunteer. Such value incompatibility causes the kind of disruption described by Lear, because we experience our attempts as so woefully inadequate that we are unsure what it would even mean to be both a 'parent' and 'volunteer'.

Pace Lear, such disruption does not inherently reorient us toward excellence, because being excellent as a parent is to some extent incompatible with being excellent as a volunteer. Sure, we can be a parent and a volunteer. However, we do not have the resources to be both the best 'parent' and best 'volunteer' we can be (especially if also try to be the best 'friend', 'colleague', or 'pianist' we can be). There is no immediate solution to this problem. We must therefore learn to "live with the conflict, recognizing that one's conception of a good life [including harmony between one's values] cannot be fully realized in the world as it unfortunately happens to be" (Tiberius 2008, 179). Yet, living such a life is easier said than done, which is why we need to find a "strategy for coping with an imperfect world" (Tiberius 2008, 180).

Ironic characters in satire can serve as exactly such a strategy for coping with the disruption of value incompatibility, specifically to distance ourselves from an otherwise destructive ideal of moral perfectionism. Consider a cartoon by Andy Singer ( 2004, 123), in which he not only uses ironic characters to ridicule the absurdly defective viewpoints of a self-made businesswoman, arms dealer, and army general, but equally to mock a fictional satirist who is convinced that he is emancipating the world (Fig. 1).

We all adopt philosophies that justify our lifestyles

The fictional satirist is clearly a stand-in for Singer himself - or, more precisely, the part of his personality that is prone to pursue an unattainable moral ideal. Aspiring to this unattainable moral ideal is unhealthy, as is clear from signifiers of mental ill health, like the wild hair, blank stare, and inane grin.

Singer's self-irony serves to address a disruption acknowledged by many satirists. Fellow cartoonist Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow) acknowledges that "[y]ou have to want to save the world in order to get up every day and do this work [satire], but in order to maintain your sanity, you simultaneously have to understand that you're just not going to" (Rall 2002, 28). Perkins's remark exhibits a kind of irony which resembles Lear's uncanny disruption. In this respect, 'satirist' is a practical identity which is defined by the aspiration to expose social wrongness with an eye to its termination. Yet, there is no conceivable way of creating satire that could ever fully live up to that aspiration, which causes disruption. For what is a 'satirist', if not someone fully committed to change the world?

Pace Lear, this disruption does not orient the reflexive satirist toward achieving excellence in a way which surpasses received understandings of being a 'satirist'. Rather, the point is exactly that the practical identity of the reflexive satirist is disrupted because they can never live up to the moral ideals that define that very identity. The disruption experienced by the reflexive satirist follows from an incompatibility between moral value (the care for others) and prudential value (the care of self). As Blackburn puts it, "[w]e simply cannot shoulder the burden of the entire world" ( 1998, 221), which is why "[w]e need and cherish spheres within which we are completely absorbed by private concern and emotion" (1998, 22). The fictional satirist in Singer's cartoon is unable to make that concession and acknowledge his moral imperfection, which causes mental ill health.

A similar process of ironic dissociation characterises the representation of Chidi Anagonye, a fictional ethics professor in the American comedy series The Good Place ( 2016-2019). Chidi finds himself in an afterlife that is loosely modelled on Christian eschatology. At the start, Chidi believes he has made it to the titular 'good place', because he always tried to make the morally perfect choice. Yet, Chidi's moral conscientiousness is also his tragic flaw because he is painfully aware of all the consequences of his decisions. As a result, Chidi's moral deliberation is so neurotic and obsessive that it becomes completely unsuccessful. Chidi can never reach a decision and, unable to identify the perfect moral action, he does not act at all (or incessantly postpones).

This complete breakdown of practical deliberation is Chidi's ultimate undoing. Failing to find the perfect bar for a drink with his best friend, Chidi remains frozen on the pavement for thirty minutes, until an air conditioner unit falls from a window and hits him straight on the head. Chidi's troubling experiences in the afterlife ultimately make him realize that he is in the 'bad place', where tormented souls experience psychological torture equivalent to their character flaws. In Chidi's case, what really makes the bad place so bad is that he constantly has to make decisions, which permanently gives him a stomach ache. In other words, because of his moral perfectionism, Chidi experiences mental suffering and a complete breakdown of practical deliberation.

What Chidi lacks to dissociate himself from his moral perfectionism is a sense of practical wisdom, which the makers of The Good Place do exhibit in their representation of him as an ironic character. According to James E. Birren and Lauren M. Fisher, "[w]isdom seems to emerge as a dialectic that, on one pole, is bounded by the transcendence of limitations and, on the other, by their acceptance" ( 1990, 324). Similarly, Positive Psychologists identify wisdom as a matter of the right "perspective" (Peterson and Seligman 2004, 181). This right perspective involves a degree of self-acceptance and acceptance of unchangeable circumstances, which are commonly advocated as strategies to prevent mental health issues like stress, anxiety, and depression (NHS Staff 2018a, 2018b). In this regard, wisdom as a character virtue correlates with the absence of neuroticism (Staudinger et al. 1997).

Ironic characters, like Chidi or Singer's fictional satirist, are a manifestation of such practical wisdom. Their representation involves a dissociative stancetaking from moral perfectionism, which frames it as absurdly defective. Concretely, through the ironic character of the fictional satirist, Singer comes to terms with his limitations in changing the world. In the absence of such a coping strategy, he is bound to damage his wellbeing and decision-making (as the example of Chidi shows). Hence, for Singer, ironic dissociation from his inner perfectionist creates just the right amount of distance from debilitating moral perfectionism to continue creating satire.

At the same time, Schmid also identifies the " dangers" of too much dissociation, specifically "the habit of the subject to resign in unbearable contrarieties and only ironise them" and thus "never speak seriously anymore, show no spine, support nothing, so that everything goes" ( 1998, 380, my translation). This is the kind of irony that philosophers and cultural critics are worried about because it echoes moral commitment only to dismiss it as ridiculous. (Values? Yeah right.) Such irony typically constitutes an attempt to flippantly deflect disappointment in response to suffering that cannot be abated. It distances us from our moral imperfection altogether and makes us morally apathetic. Hence, what is required is a virtuous irony that strikes the right balance between too little disruption (complete insensitivity) and too much disruption (complete breakdown of practical deliberation).

Ironic characters in arts and media are uniquely valuable because they provide a clearly developed example of how we can cultivate such a virtuous irony. The aesthetic appreciation of ironic characters requires "narrative thinking", which involves understanding and appreciating "divergences" between perspectives, for example between perspectives of characters internal to the story, or between the internal perspective of a character and the external perspective of the author, etc. (Goldie 2012, 30). Specifically, to engage with an ironic character like Chidi, we must understand and appreciate that his perspective is defective and diverges from the reasonable perspective of The Good Place 's writers. Crucially, we can adopt this process of narrative thinking and put it to virtuous use in our moral lives.

Specifically, we can learn to cope with the disruption of value incompatibility and moral imperfection by dissociating ourselves from a neurotically perfectionist version of ourselves. Doing so, we dissociate ourselves from moral perfectionism, by appreciating how defective we would be if we really were like Chidi or Singer's fictional satirist. This strategy builds on the ordinary role of narrative thinking in practical deliberation. Peter Goldie explains how we often think through our thoughts and actions from an external perspective to guide our reflection about the past and planning for the future ( 2004, 109-111). He explains how such narrative thinking about ourselves is characterised by an ironic gap; reflecting on the ignorant beliefs we held as a teenager, we now feel a certain amusement at the expense of our previous self, which guides us to make more enlightened choices in the future (Goldie 2012, 56).

Such narrative thinking about our previous self is identical to reorienting our practical deliberation by getting to see ourselves as 'such a Chidi' in situations where our moral ideals risk suffocating us. Goldie explains that fictional characters like Chidi often serve as a resource in our practical identity; we think of ourselves as "a loser like Marilyn Monroe's Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot; a loner like the James Coburn character in The Magnificent Seven; a lover like Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge ( 2004, 116). Similarly, Hilde Lindemann argues that "[p]ersonal identities consist of a connective tissue of narratives" and "many contain stock plots and character types that are borrowed from narratives that circulate widely in the culture" ( 2001, 72). Therefore, what makes ironic characters in popular media uniquely valuable is that we can adopt and adapt them in our narrative thinking to cope with the disruption of value incompatibility and moral imperfection.

Conclusion

According to Lear, irony functions as an Aristotelian virtue, holding a "mean between excess and defect" (2011, 32). Similarly, I have argued that whereas too much irony leads to moral apathy, too little irony leads to moral neuroticism and mental ill health. Yet, I have challenged Lear's conception of irony as an experience of uncanny disruption which orients us toward human excellence. Not only is Lear's understanding of irony too idiosyncratic to alleviate common moral suspicions about irony, his account also overlooks the disruption of value incompatibility, which does not reorient us toward human excellence, but instead confronts us with our moral imperfection. Introducing ironic characters, I have outlined how a complex form of communicative irony can be put to virtuous use by helping us cope with the unavoidable disruption of imperfection in our moral lives.

My proposal attenuates common moral suspicions about irony in arts and media by showing how an ironic strategy can contribute to sustaining mental wellbeing and healthy practical deliberation in the face of disruptive value incompatibility. Moreover, formulating effective coping strategies in response to such disruption has never been more pressing. While value incompatibility is of all ages, it is intensified by increased knowledge about the consequences of our actions, which can cause clashes between values embedded in our different practical identities. In this respect, global information technology has made us often painfully aware that our aspirations to be the best possible 'friend', 'colleague', or 'pianist' can make us indirectly contribute to climate change or social injustice. We now have no way of not knowing about the cost of flying across the world to attend to our ill friend's needs or deliver that prestigious piano recital. To sustain good mental health and successful practical deliberation in this environment with increased opportunities for disruption, we need coping strategies like ironic characters more than ever.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alfred Archer, Stacie Friend, Henk van Gils, Ami Harbin, Kristien Hens, Pilar Lopez-Cantero, Hans Maes, Constantin Mehmel, Christoph Menke, Lubomira Radoilska, Katrien Schaubroeck, Clint Verdonschot, and two anonymous referees for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks also to David Brown, Gregory Currie, Manuel Garin, and James MacDowell for conversations about irony.

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Dieter Declercq

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Declercq, D. Irony, Disruption and Moral Imperfection. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 23, 545-559 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10105-z
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Keywords

Jonathan Lear

Value incompatibility

Moral perfectionism

Disruption

Irony

Echo vs. pretence

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Irony, Disruption and Moral Imperfection - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

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Irony has a suspicious moral reputation, especially in popular media and internet culture. Jonathan Lear (2011) introduces a proposal which challenges this suspicion and identifies irony as a means to achieve human excellence. For Lear, irony is a disruptive uncanniness which arises from a gap between aspiration and actualisation in our practical identity.

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Mishearings - The inability to listen to the truth

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Mishearings - The inability to listen to the truth

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http://0-search.ebscohost.com.libcat.uafs.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1218897&site=eds-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_Cover

"Willful white mishearings and auditory imaginings of blackness"
This quote is what drew me in. Stoever covers some great concepts and realities with her work. The most relevant to my idea of irony in Whitehead's Nickel Boys is how black people are "given" the expectation of behavior, but are then brutalized for both, adhering to that expectation and for not meeting that expectation. This is the premise for what what happens to Elwood and what ultimately allows Whitehead to create his story.

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https://doi.org/10.2307/3089364

In this study the issue of sensationalizing racism and police brutality bring to light a growing problem. Ross raises the question of who decides what racism and what police violence becomes coverable in the news. The concept of how ironic it is that society relies on media for information but also allows it to govern our ideas of racism is relevant to Whitehead's Nickel Boys because the same things essentially play out in his story.

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Review: [Untitled]

Reviewed Work: Making News of Police Violence: A Comparative Study of Toronto and New York City by Jeffrey Ian Ross

Review by: David T. Johnson

Vol. 30, No. 5 (Sep., 2001), pp. 521-523 (3 pages)

Published By: American Sociological Association

https://doi.org/10.2307/3089364

https://www. jstor .org/stable/3089364

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Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: Making News of Police Violence: A Comparative Study of Toronto and New York City by Jeffrey Ian Ross Review by: David T. Johnson Vol. 30, No. 5 (Sep., 2001), pp. 521-523 (3 pages) Published By: American Sociological Association https://doi.org/10.2307/3089364 https://www.