Over our evolutionary history, humans have faced the problem of how to create and maintain social bonds in progressively larger groups compared to those of our primate ancestors. Evidence from historical and anthropological records suggests that group music-making might act as a mechanism by which this large-scale social bonding could occur. While previous research has shown effects of music making on social bonds in small group contexts, the question of whether this effect 'scales up' to larger groups is particularly important when considering the potential role of music for large-scale social bonding. The current study recruited individuals from a community choir that met in both small (n = 20 - 80) and large (a 'megachoir' combining individuals from the smaller subchoirs n = 232) group contexts. Participants gave self-report measures (via a survey) of social bonding and had pain threshold measurements taken (as a proxy for endorphin release) before and after 90 minutes of singing. Results showed that feelings of inclusion, connectivity, positive affect, and measures of endorphin release all increased across singing rehearsals and that the influence of group singing was comparable for pain thresholds in the large versus small group context. Levels of social closeness were found to be greater at pre- and post-levels for the small choir condition. However, the large choir condition experienced a greater change in social closeness as compared to the small condition. The finding that singing together fosters social closeness - even in large contexts where individuals are not known to each other - is consistent with evolutionary accounts that emphasize the role of music in social bonding, particularly in the context of creating larger cohesive groups than other primates are able to manage.

中文翻译：

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团体音乐表演会导致小型和大型歌手团体的疼痛阈值和社交联系升高。

在我们的进化历史中，与我们的灵长类祖先相比，人类面临着如何在越来越大的群体中建立和维持社会纽带的问题。来自历史和人类学记录的证据表明，集体音乐创作可能是这种大规模社会联系发生的机制。虽然先前的研究已经表明音乐制作对小群体社会纽带的影响，但在考虑音乐对大规模社会纽带的潜在作用时，这种影响是否“扩大”到更大群体的问题尤为重要。目前的研究从一个社区合唱团中招募了个人，这些合唱团在小型（n = 20 - 80）和大型（一个“大型合唱团”，结合了来自较小的子合唱团的个人 n = 232）群体背景下相遇。参与者在歌唱 90 分钟前后对社会联系进行了自我报告测量（通过调查），并进行了疼痛阈值测量（作为内啡肽释放的代表）。结果表明，在歌唱排练中，包容感、连通性、积极情绪和内啡肽释放量均有所增加，并且集体歌唱的影响在大群体和小群体背景下的疼痛阈值方面具有可比性。在小型合唱团的情况下，社会亲近程度在前级和后级更高。然而，与小型合唱团相比，大型合唱团的社会亲密度发生了更大的变化。