Any group moving in unison is seen by others: Daniël Lakens and Mariëlle Stel, “If They Move in Sync, They Must Feel in Sync: Movement Synchrony Leads to Attributions of Rapport and Entitativity.” Social Cognition 29, no. 1 (2011): 1–14.
When people move together: Daniel M. T. Fessler and Colin Holbrook. “Marching into Battle: Synchronized Walking Diminishes the Conceptualized Formidability of an Antagonist in Men.” Biology Letters 10, no. 8 (2014): doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0592.
Studies of real-world marches and demonstrations: Dario Páez et al., “Psychosocial Effects of Perceived Emotional Synchrony in Collective Gatherings.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108, no. 5 (2015): 711–29.
the effects of participating in charity athletic events: Kevin Filo and Alexandra Coghlan, “Exploring the Positive Psychology Domains of Well-Being Activated Through Charity Sport Event Experiences.” Event Management 20, no. 2 (2016): 181–99.
Those who increased their participation in group exercise: Taishi Tsuji et al., “Reducing Depressive Symptoms After the Great East Japan Earthquake in Older Survivors Through Group Exercise Participation and Regular Walking: A Prospective Observational Study.” BMJ Open 7, no. 3 (2017): e013706.
Jacob Devaney, who rebuilt homes in New Orleans: Jacob Devaney, “Research Shows Dancing Makes You Feel Better.” Uplift, December 14, 2015.
Groups will often synchronize: Erwan Codrons et al., “Spontaneous Group Synchronization of Movements and Respiratory Rhythms.” PLOS ONE 9, no. 9 (2014): e107538.
Cognitive scientist Mark Changizi uses the word nature-harnessing: Mark Changizi, Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2011). Quote is on p. 5.
the more you get your heart rate up: Joshua Conrad Jackson et al., “Synchrony and Physiological Arousal Increase Cohesion and Cooperation in Large Naturalistic Groups.” Scientific Reports 8, no. 1 (2018): 127.
Adding music has the same enhancing effect: Jan Stupacher et al., “Music Strengthens Prosocial Effects of Interpersonal Synchronization—If You Move in Time with the Beat.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 72 (2017): 39–44.
happy sweat has a different odor: Jasper H. B. de Groot et al., “A Sniff of Happiness.” Psychological Science 26, no. 6 (2015): 684–700.
The scent of joy . . . appears to be culturally universal: Jasper H. B. de Groot et al., “Beyond the West: Chemosignaling of Emotions Transcends Ethno-Cultural Boundaries.” Psychoneuroendocrinology 98 (2018): 177–85.
Analyzing the dance rituals of the Andaman Islanders: Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders. Quote appears on p. 248.
people who have a prosocial orientation: Joanne Lumsden et al., “Who Syncs? Social Motives and Interpersonal Coordination.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48, no. 3 (2012): 746–51.
“Euphoric response to keeping together”: McNeill, Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. Quote appears on p. 150.
Chapter 4: Let Yourself Be Moved
Musicologists call this urge groove: Petr Janata, Stefan T. Tomic, and Jason M. Haberman, “Sensorimotor Coupling in Music and the Psychology of the Groove.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 141, no. 1 (2012): 54–75.
Newborns . . . can detect a regular beat: István Winkler et al., “Newborn Infants Detect the Beat in Music.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106, no. 7 (2009): 2468–71.
Infants rock their feet: Marcel Zentner and Tuomas Eerola, “Rhythmic Engagement with Music in Infancy.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107, no. 13 (2010): 5768–73; Beatriz Ilari, “Rhythmic Engagement with Music in Early Childhood: A Replication and Extension.” Journal of Research in Music Education 62 (2015): 332–43.
Music activates the so-called motor loop: Chelsea L. Gordon, Patrice R. Cobb, and Ramesh Balasubramaniam, “Recruitment of the Motor System During Music Listening: An ALE Meta-Analysis of fMRI Data.” PLOS ONE 13, no. 11 (2018): e0207213.
The stronger the musical beat: Katja Kornysheva et al., “Tuning-in to the Beat: Aesthetic Appreciation of Musical Rhythms Correlates with a Premotor Activity Boost.” Human Brain Mapping 31, no. 1 (2010): 48–64.
“When listening to music, we listen with our muscles”: Oliver Sacks, A Leg to Stand On (New York: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1998). Quote appears on p. 13. Sacks claims to be quoting Nietzsche, although I could not find any original source confirming this quote.
“Every weary and footsore soldier”: Robert Goldthwaite Carter, Four Brothers in Blue, or Sunshine and Shadow of the War of the Rebellion: A Story of the Great Civil War from Bull Run to Appomattox (Washington, DC: Press of Gibson Bros., Inc., 1913). Quote appears on p. 297. Accessed at https://archive.org/details/cu31924032780623.
Seventy-six-year-old Tucker Andersen: Juliet Macur, “A Marathon Without Music? Runners with Headphones Balk at Policy.” New York Times, November 1, 2007.
The brain responds to music it enjoys: Anne J. Blood and Robert J. Zatorre, “Intensely Pleasurable Responses to Music Correlate with Activity in Brain Regions Implicated in Reward and Emotion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 98, no. 20 (2001): 11818–23; Valorie N. Salimpoor et al., “Anatomically Distinct Dopamine Release During Anticipation and Experience of Peak Emotion to Music.” Nature Neuroscience 14, no. 2 (2011): 257–62.
musicologists describe music as ergogenic: Marc Leman, The Expressive Moment: How Interaction (with Music) Shapes Human Empowerment (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016).
middle-aged patients with diabetes: Karan Sarode et al., “Does Music Impact Exercise Capacity During Cardiac Stress Test? A Single Blinded Pilot Randomized Controlled Study.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology 71, no. 11 (2018): A400.
adding a soundtrack helps rowers, sprinters, and swimmers: Mária Rendi, Attila Szabo, and Tamás Szabó, “Performance Enhancement with Music in Rowing Sprint.” The Sport Psychologist 22, no. 2 (2008): 175–82. Stuart D. Simpson and Costas I. Karageorghis, “The Effects of Synchronous Music on 400-Metre Sprint Performance.” Journal of Sports Sciences 24, no. 10 (2006): 1095–102; Costas Karageorghis et al., “Psychological, Psychophysical, and Ergogenic Effects of Music in Swimming.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14, no. 4 (2013): 560–68.
Runners can tolerate extreme heat: Luke Nikol et al., “The Heat Is On: Effects of Synchronous Music on Psychophysiological Parameters and Running Performance in Hot and Humid Conditions.” Frontiers in Psychology 9 (2018): 1114.
triathletes can push themselves farther: Peter C. Terry et al., “Effects of Synchronous Music on Treadmill Running Among Elite Triathletes.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 15, no. 1 (2012): 52–57.
music is a legal performance-enhancing drug: Edith Van Dyck and Marc Leman, “Ergogenic Effect of Music During Running Performance.” Annals of Sports Medicine and Research 3, no. 6 (2016): 1082.
listening to “Eye of the Tiger”: Marcelo Bigliassi et al., “Cerebral Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Music During a Fatiguing Isometric Ankle-Dorsiflexion Task.” Psychophysiology 53, no. 10 (2016): 1472–83.
it colors your interpretation: Jonathan M. Bird et al., “Effects of Music and Music-Video on Core Affect During Exercise at the Lactate Threshold.” Psychology of Music 44, no. 6 (2016): 1471–87.
researchers asked women to say out loud: Elaine A. Rose and Gaynor Parfitt, “Pleasant for Some and Unpleasant for Others: A Protocol Analysis of the Cognitive Factors That Influence Affective Responses to Exercise.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 7 (2010): 1–15.
psychologists and musicologists at Dartmouth College: Beau Sievers et al., “Music and Movement Share a Dynamic Structure That Supports Universal Expressions of Emotion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110, no. 1 (2013): 70–75.
Differe
nt movements reliably produced distinct emotions: Tal Shafir et al., “Emotion Regulation Through Execution, Observation, and Imagery of Emotional Movements.” Brain and Cognition 82, no. 2 (2013): 219–27; Tal Shafir, Rachelle P. Tsachor, and Kathleen B. Welch, “Emotion Regulation Through Movement: Unique Sets of Movement Characteristics Are Associated With and Enhance Basic Emotions.” Frontiers in Psychology 6 (2016): 02030.
“The individual shouts and jumps for joy”: Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders. Quote appears on p. 247.
the jumping dance of the Maasai warriors in Kenya: Watch the dance at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA4bAuAoEsU.
I met Miriam: “Miriam” is a pseudonym used at the request of the individual. No other details or quotes have been altered in this story.
The mask is often misread: Rachel Schwartz and Marc D. Pell, “When Emotion and Expression Diverge: The Social Costs of Parkinson’s Disease.” Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 39, no. 3 (2017): 211–30.
Music triggers spontaneous facial expressions: Lars-Olov Lundqvist et al., “Emotional Responses to Music: Experience, Expression, and Physiology.” Psychology of Music 37, no. 1 (2009): 61–90.
dance classes modeled on the Dance for PD program: Lisa Heiberger et al., “Impact of a Weekly Dance Class on the Functional Mobility and on the Quality of Life of Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.” Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 3 (2011): 14.
neurologist Oliver Sacks told the story: “Forever Young: Music and Aging.” Hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate. Washington, D.C., August 1, 1991. Hearing 102-545. Testimony transcript available at: https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/publications/811991.pdf
“It stirs some barbaric instinct”: Virginia Woolf, “A Dance at Queen’s Gate.” In A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897–1909, Mitchell A. Leaska, ed. (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990).
“Even when I’m just listening”: Jennifer J. Nicol, “Body, Time, Space and Relationship in the Music Listening Experiences of Women with Chronic Illness.” Psychology of Music 38, no. 3 (2010): 351–67.
Chapter 5: Overcoming Obstacles
“I wanted to see how strong I could become”: Araliya Ming Senerat’s quote comes from an Instagram post. Her story is included with permission. For more stories about the psychological benefits of powerlifting among women, see: https://www.buzzfeed.com/sallytamarkin/badass-people-who-lift-weights-to-heal-fight-oppression.
Widdicombe likened it to a rite of passage: Lizzie Widdicombe, “In Cold Mud.” The New Yorker, January 27, 2014.
he was routinely shocked by cattle fences: Anecdote appears in Will Dean, It Takes a Tribe: Building the Tough Mudder Movement (New York: Penguin, 2017), 114–15.
But sometimes shocking rats doesn’t make them helpless: Steven F. Maier, “Behavioral Control Blunts Reactions to Contemporaneous and Future Adverse Events: Medial Prefrontal Cortex Plasticity and a Corticostriatal Network.” Neurobiology of Stress 1 (2015): 12–22.
This rat doesn’t become depressed: J. Amat et al., “Behavioral Control over Shock Blocks Behavioral and Neurochemical Effects of Later Social Defeat.” Neuroscience 165, no. 4 (2010): 1031–38.
Researchers who studied the San Pedro Manrique ritual: Joseph A. Bulbulia et al., “Images from a Jointly-Arousing Collective Ritual Reveal Affective Polarization.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 960.
Humans are not the only species to help: Erik T. Frank and K. Eduard Linsenmair, “Saving the Injured: Evolution and Mechanisms.” Communicative & Integrative Biology 10, nos. 5–6 (2017): e1356516; John C. Lilly, “Distress Call of the Bottlenose Dolphin: Stimuli and Evoked Behavioral Responses.” Science 139, no. 3550 (1963): 116–18; Martijn Hammers and Lyanne Brouwer, “Rescue Behaviour in a Social Bird: Removal of Sticky ‘Bird-Catcher Tree’ Seeds by Group Members.” Behaviour 154, no. 4 (2017): 403–11.
philosopher Thomas Brown argued that our muscles: Thomas Brown, Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 2nd ed., 4 vols (first published 1820; Edinburgh, 1824). Vol. 1, 460–61. As described in Roger Smith, “‘The Sixth Sense’: Towards a History of Muscular Sensation.” Gesnerus 68, no. 2 (2011): 218–71.
The regions of your brain that produce . . . self-awareness: Olaf Blanke, Mel Slater, and Andrea Serino, “Behavioral, Neural, and Computational Principles of Bodily Self-Consciousness.” Neuron 88, no. 1 (2015): 145–66.
“My limbs just feel lost”: M. Kelter (a pseudonym used by author), “Descartes’ Lantern (the Curious Case of Autism and Proprioception).” August 26, 2014; https://theinvisiblestrings.com/descartes-lantern-curious-case-autism-proprioception/. Quoted with author permission.
“I have seen women who have felt small for years”: Laura Khoudari, “The Incredible, Life-Affirming Nature of the Deadlift.” Medium, March 1, 2018; https://medium.com/@laura.khoudari/the-incredible-life-affirming-nature-of-the-deadlift-4e1e5b637dad.
“Hope without an object cannot live”: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quote from the 1825 sonnet “Work Without Hope.”
C. R. Snyder, who conducted: C. Richard Snyder, “Hope Theory: Rainbows in the Mind.” Psychological Inquiry 13, no. 4 (2002): 249–75.
a hill seems less steep: Simone Schnall et al., “Social Support and the Perception of Geographical Slant.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44, no. 5 (2008): 1246–55.
In 2007 . . . a sixty-five-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease: Ilana Schlesinger, Ilana Erikh, and David Yarnitsky, “Paradoxical Kinesia at War.” Movement Disorders 22, no. 16 (2007): 2394–97, as cited in H. G. Laurie Rauch, Georg Schönbächler, and Timothy D. Noakes, “Neural Correlates of Motor Vigour and Motor Urgency During Exercise.” Sports Medicine 43, no. 4 (2013): 227–41.
When people who are important to you celebrate: Harry T. Reis et al., “Are You Happy for Me? How Sharing Positive Events with Others Provides Personal and Interpersonal Benefits.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99, no. 2 (2010): 311–29.
physician Jerome Groopman defines hope: Jerome Groopman, The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2005). Quote appears on p. xiv.
In one experiment, psychologists induced hope: Carla J. Berg, C. R. Snyder, and Nancy Hamilton, “The Effectiveness of a Hope Intervention in Coping with Cold Pressor Pain.” Journal of Health Psychology 13, no. 6 (2008): 804–9.
when people perceive a painful physical exercise: Fabrizio Benedetti et al., “Pain as a Reward: Changing the Meaning of Pain from Negative to Positive Co-activates Opioid and Cannabinoid Systems.” PAIN 154, no. 3 (2013): 361–67.
“When I watch Kobe glide to the basket”: Jonah Lehrer, “The Neuroscience of Fandom.” Frontal Cortex, June 13, 2008; http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/06/13/it-happens-to-me-every/.
“When we see a human body moving: “John Joseph Martin, America Dancing: The Background and Personalities of the Modern Dance (1936; reprint, Brooklyn, NY: Dance Horizons, 1968). Quote appears on p. 117.
Chapter 6: Embrace Life
Psychologists call physical activity: For an excellent introduction to green exercise, see: Jo Barton, Rachel Bragg, Carly Wood, and Jules Pretty, eds., Green Exercise: Linking Nature, Health and Well-Being (New York: Routledge, 2016).
Taking a walk outdoors slows: Mariya Davydenko and Johanna Peetz, “Time Grows on Trees: The Effect of Nature Settings on Time Perception.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 54 (2017): 20–26.
Simply being in an environment: Richard A. Fuller et al., “Psychological Benefits of Greenspace Increase with Biodiversity.” Biology Letters 3, no. 4 (2007): 390–94.
Even just remembering a time: Michelle N. Shiota, Dacher Keltner, and Amanda Mossman, “The Nature of Awe: Elicitors, Appraisals, and Effects on Self-Concept.” Cognition and Emotion 21, no. 5 (2007): 944–63.
“There were no sharp things insid
e me”: Paul Heintzman, “Men’s Wilderness Experience and Spirituality: A Qualitative Study.” Proceedings of the 2006 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium, General Technical Report NRS-P-14, 216–25; https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs-p-14/30-heintzman-p-14.pdf.
“a complete sense of belonging”: Robert D. Schweitzer, Harriet L. Glab, and Eric Brymer, “The Human–Nature Experience: A Phenomenological-Psychoanalytic Perspective.” Frontiers in Psychology 9 (2018): 969; https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00969.
At the Hong-reung Arboretum: Won Kim et al., “The Effect of Cognitive Behavior Therapy-Based Psychotherapy Applied in a Forest Environment on Physiological Changes and Remission of Major Depressive Disorder.” Psychiatry Investigation 6, no. 4 (2009): 245–54.
In an Austrian study, adding mountain hiking: J. Sturm, “Physical Exercise Through Mountain Hiking in High-Risk Suicide Patients. A Randomized Crossover Trial.” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 126, no. 6 (2012): 467–75.
“I felt more free, less trapped”: Maura Kelly, “Finally Seeing the Forest for the Trees.” Longreads, November 2017; https://longreads.com/2017/11/15/finally-seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees/. Some quotes and details come from a series of email interviews I conducted with Kelly.
This brain network was first identified: Marcus E. Raichle et al., “A Default Mode of Brain Function.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 98, no. 2 (2001): 676–82.
The brain’s baseline activity: Christopher G. Davey and Ben J. Harrison, “The Brain’s Center of Gravity: How the Default Mode Network Helps Us to Understand the Self.” World Psychiatry 17, no. 3 (2018): 278–79.
However, the default state also has a downside: Igor Marchetti et al., “Spontaneous Thought and Vulnerability to Mood Disorders: The Dark Side of the Wandering Mind.” Clinical Psychological Science 4, no. 5 (2016): 835–57.
people who suffer from depression or anxiety: Aneta Brzezicka, “Integrative Deficits in Depression and in Negative Mood States as a Result of Fronto-Parietal Network Dysfunctions.” Acta Neurobiol Exp 73, no. 3 (2013): 313–25; Igor Marchetti et al., “The Default Mode Network and Recurrent Depression: A Neurobiological Model of Cognitive Risk Factors.” Neuropsychology Review 22, no. 3 (2012): 229–51; Annette Beatrix Brühl et al., “Neuroimaging in Social Anxiety Disorder—A Meta-Analytic Review Resulting in a New Neurofunctional Model.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 47 (2014): 260–80; Claudio Gentili et al., “Beyond Amygdala: Default Mode Network Activity Differs Between Patients with Social Phobia and Healthy Controls.” Brain Research Bulletin 79, no. 6 (2009): 409–13.
The Joy of Movement Page 23