Irritating Earworms
Terri Roberts
Who is affected more:
What most likely becomes an earworm:
Musicians
Women
People who worry
The most recent song you listened to
A song or tune you repeatedly listened to
A song that connects to past events or memories
A study conducted at the University of Cincinnati found that ninety-eight percent of all people are afflicted with earworms at some point in their lives. Don’t rush off to your physician or start checking your ears just yet—earworms aren’t creatures, they’re songs.
Marketing professor and leading earworm researcher James Kellaris studies the way that music influences consumers. Kellaris defines an earworm as any song, tune, or commercial jingle that worms its way into your head and repeats itself involuntarily. After a while, a merely catchy song can become extremely annoying and distracting to the afflicted person, causing them to lose focus on the job or at school.
The term earworm is a translation of the German word ohrwurm. Other common names for the condition include “stuck song syndrome” and “melodymania.” The problem with these annoyingly catchy songs is that no one knows why they become stuck in our heads.
Through his research, Kellaris has identified several musical components of earworms. Most of the songs that stick in people’s heads are simple, repetitive, and contain some unexpected twist. While these factors tend to play a major role, Kellaris has also found that earworms are idiosyncratic—meaning that the playlist running through your head is probably completely different from the music playing in your friends’ or coworkers’ brains. This makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint the cause of earworms.
Kellaris’s Theory of Cognitive Itch (2001) compares earworms to histamines that can cause your skin to itch. Kellaris believes that exposure to certain types of music can cause an itch inside our brains, and the only way to scratch it is to repeat the music in our minds over and over again. The professor may have scientific evidence to back up his claim.
A study at Dartmouth University used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the brain activity of volunteers while they listened to music. The researchers played tunes that were both familiar and unfamiliar to subjects, and then they suddenly stopped the music in the middle of a song. They discovered that the participants would mentally fill in the gaps of the familiar songs after the music stopped playing. The MRIs showed more brain activity in the auditory association area when there was a gap in a familiar song. The brain cannot help continuing the familiar song even when the music stops.
Who you are may also make you more susceptible to earworms than other people. Kellaris’s research found that musicians are particularly afflicted. Great musicians have reported having notes stuck inside their brains for long periods. Eventually, many of them turn these annoying tunes into songs. Because musicians listen to music all the time, it’s easy to assume that earworms affect them more than they do nonmusicians. Surprisingly, Kellaris also found that women are more likely to have music repeating in their minds than men are. People who tend to worry are also more prone to the condition.
There is no known cure for earworms. Many people try to listen to other music or think about something else to get the offending song out of their heads. An earworm usually lasts a few hours, but some people have reported symptoms lasting for nearly a week. Until someone isolates a cause, researchers in the marketing and neurological fields will continue to study the various elements of this fascinating phenomenon.
Question
Oh, no! Have you got that annoying song stuck in your head again? Have you tried everything to get that tune out of your head without success? Now, there’s a surefire cure to even the most persistent earworms—it’s Dr. Jones’s Earworm Remover! The earworm remover is a patent-pending series of white noise loops guaranteed to get that annoying jingle out of your head in minutes! Dr. Jones’s Earworm Remover is not sold in stores and is only available through this special television offer!
Read this script for a television advertisement. Which sentence would be the MOST effective and appropriate conclusion for this script?
Responses
A Dr. Jones’s Earworm remover has been tested in labs across the country.Dr. Jones’s Earworm remover has been tested in labs across the country.
B White noise loops are proven to clear the mind and leave you feeling relaxed.White noise loops are proven to clear the mind and leave you feeling relaxed.
C Other methods might not work, but Dr. Jones’s Earworm Remover comes with a guarantee.Other methods might not work, but Dr. Jones’s Earworm Remover comes with a guarantee.
D This is just one of five great products that Dr. Jones has successfully marketed in five other countries.This is just one of five great products that Dr. Jones has successfully marketed in five other countries.
E Satisfied customers agree that Dr. Jones’s Earworm Remover is the most effective way to clear your mind.