Experiment shows that a voice can change your hormones, but a text message won’t

Gizmodo.com reports that biological anthropologist Leslie Seltzer of the University of Wisconsin held an experiment where 7-12 year-old girls were faced with a challenging laboratory experiment, and then allowed to receive encouragement from their mothers.  Some mothers spoke in person, some by phone, and some only by text.  “Seltzer and her team found that daughters who could hear their mothers – whether it was in person or over the phone – showed clear drops in their cortisol levels and a release of oxytocin. Cortisol is a hormone commonly linked with stress, while oxytocin is the so-called “love hormone.””  The girls who received only text messages showed no signs of hormonal change.

This experiment has two implications in the musical education world.  One is that it shows the power of the human voice.  Having control over our voice and knowing how to use it can help us immensely in our relationships throughout our lives – at work or at home.  The capability to create soothing tones with our voices is part of understanding how our voice works, which is the goal of singing education for kids.  The other implication is that this study indicates how important human instruction is in the education world.  Learning from a computer program is just not as impacting as learning from a human being.  This is the reason why teachers can never be replaced by computers, especially for children.

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