The heatwave is over, but I’m still sweating when talking about our research on live TV. I got to represent the Music and Health Lab today on ORF’s “Aktuell nach 1”. Watch it and tell me if grandma is right that this is the greatest piece of television since Casablanca. on.orf.at/video/143302...

It was a lot of fun appearing on the Wissenswirt podcast, talking about research, drinks, and why everyone should listen to G’schupfter Ferdl. You can check out our conversation (and those with the previous guests) here: open.spotify.com/episode/6ND4...

Wieso werden Songtexte immer negativer? | Markus Foramitti

Wissenswirt · Episode

open.spotify.com

Talking about my research on radio is always fun, but it’s even better when I also get to curate the playlist. Here’s my interview with NDR Nachtclub ÜberPop on music, stress, and society: www.ndr.de/ndrblue/send...

Excited to share our paper on perceived health benefits of martial arts and combat sports 🌞👩‍🔬 We found that practitioners report physical, cognitive, emotional and social benefits linked to better self-rated health, with effects across experience levels, not just among most seasoned practitioners 👉

Frontiers | Perceived health benefits of martial arts and combat sports

IntroductionWhile there are many anecdotal claims and a growing body of literature on the health benefits of martial arts (MA) and combat sports (CS), resear...

frontiersin.org

ÖGP 2026 poster highlights: Hannah Tschenett presented on digital stress management; Anna Fekete introduced a questionnaire for music preferences; Sarah Landskron shared an RCT on yoga effects on stress and inflammation, @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented music as collective emotion regulation

ÖGP 2026 talk highlights from our lab: @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented how ASMR can reduce stress, @adreisoerner.bsky.social presented a meta-analysis on mental health in early-career researchers, and @celinebencker.bsky.social shared findings on PMS and stress.

I was recently invited to speak on FM4 about stress, societal mood, and pop music. We discussed what trends like “Recession Pop,” “2026 is the new 2016,” and “Tradpop” might reveal about the cultural zeitgeist. You can listen to the full interview here: lnkd.in/dazrB4nJ

FM4 Interview Podcast - FM4 Interview mit Psychologen Markus Foramitti zu Stress und Musik

Poptrends kommen und gehen. In Zeiten von TikTok und Co. immer schneller. War noch vor einem Jahr ein Revival des sogenannten „Recession Pop“ angesagt, hat man vor ein paar Wochen mit „2026 is the new...

sound.orf.at

Had a fantastic time presenting my research at the Nature of Music conference in Vienna 🤓 Inspiring to see so much thoughtful interdisciplinary work at the intersection of music, psychology, and science. Grateful for the engaging discussions and new ideas

Nice to see the media echo of our recent paper on how stress, sentiment, and lyrical complexity in popular music have changed from 1973–2023 - and what this says about collective mood regulation through music 🎵 Summary by the University of Vienna: psychologie.univie.ac.at/news-medienb...

Medienecho zu Markus Foramitti, Urs Nater, Claus Lamm und Maurício Martins

Studie zu Songtexten in Krisenzeiten von zahlreichen nationalen und internationalen Medien aufgegriffen

psychologie.univie.ac.at

@markusforamitti.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New paper out! 🥸 Over the last 50 years, people have gravitated toward music with increasingly negative, stressful, and simpler lyrics. Societal crises like COVID-19 disrupted these long-term trends, suggesting escapist music preferences at a societal level. 🎶🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Over the past 50 years the lyrics of popular songs in the US have become simpler, more negative, and contain more stress-related words, according to an analysis in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that their findings reflect the complex ways people use music to navigate stress. 🧪

Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023 - Scientific Reports

This study examines diachronic trends in stress-related language, sentiment, and lyrical complexity in popular music’s lyrics from 1973 to 2023, exploring how major societal shocks influenced people’s music preferences and offering insights into collective mood management through music. Over 20,000 lyrics of songs in the US Top 100 charts during this period were analyzed using Natural Language Processing techniques, with stress-related language assessed using a dictionary-based approach (LIWC), sentiment estimated via a rule-based sentiment analysis tool (VADER), and complexity via the LZ77 compression algorithm. Our analysis reveals a significant increase in stress-related language, alongside declines in positive sentiment and lyrical complexity over five decades. Surprisingly, societal shocks like COVID-19 coincided with attenuations rather than amplifications of these trends, indicating a preference for emotion-incongruent music, which may serve as a form of emotion regulation, such as escapism. When controlling for long-term trends, we found no significant relationship between income growth and stress or sentiment in lyrics. In contrast, periods of high-stress language corresponded with increased lyrical complexity. These results support the notion that music plays a dual role in collective mood management, functioning as mood management and regulation, depending on the context and intensity of societal emotions.

go.nature.com

@adreisoerner.bsky.social and @markusforamitti.bsky.social appeared on camera for a PULS 4 documentary on the topic of stress — with an expert interview, a guided meditation and insights into a stresstest. 🔬🎊 👉 Check it out: www.joyn.at/filme/puls-4...

PULS 4 Doku: Stress: Freund oder Feind?

Stress, Stress und noch mal Stress – niemand mag ihn. Alle wollen ihn loswerden. Jeder 2. Österreicher meint: Stress ist schädlich. Stress nimmt zu, u

joyn.at

New paper out! 🥸 Over the last 50 years, people have gravitated toward music with increasingly negative, stressful, and simpler lyrics. Societal crises like COVID-19 disrupted these long-term trends, suggesting escapist music preferences at a societal level. 🎶🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023 - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023

nature.com

Had a great talk today at the ISGMA conference about our project combining musicological and psychological approaches to understand how sound artifacts are perceived and experienced. 🔔🧠 Thanks to everyone who stopped by and engaged with the ideas! Great event hosted by @fwf-at.bsky.social

🔔 Part 7 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his poster: “Modulating Stress through Sound: The Effects of Historical Metallic Idiophones on Human Responses.”

🫠Part 5 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series: @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his talk “Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)” in the Everyday life stress session.🙃

Great experience presenting at the WASAD Congress! I discussed how Natural Language Processing can advance stress research and how music functions as a cognitive artifact. @wasadorg.bsky.social Grateful to collaborate with @mauriciojdmartins.bsky.social @clauslamm.bsky.social & Urs Nater #WASAD

🌍 We are excited for the 5th International World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders (WASAD) Congress in Munich! 🎉 @wasadorg.bsky.social Check out our oral presentations below and don’t miss us at the poster session! 📊 @celinebencker.bsky.social @markusforamitti.bsky.social

Then, @markusforamitti.bsky.social will follow up with a fascinating exploration of how music helps regulate collective emotion in his talk: "Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)" 📝🎶

🎵 Part 7 in our #ICBM2025 series! Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his poster, "Sounds of the past – Effects of historical idiophones on psychological and physiological stress".

🎶 Part 3 in our #ICBM2025 series! Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social‬ presented his poster, "Insights into Societal Mood Regulation Through Music - Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Popular Music Lyrics."

At the recent Kinderuni Day @univie.ac.at young explorers discovered what stress is, how it affects us, and how to fight it—with music and mindfulness! Huge thanks to Dr. Stefanie Hirsch, @markusforamitti.bsky.social, and Rojan Amini-Nejad for leading this hands-on workshop in our stresslab!

Check out our new preprint with @mauriciojdmartins.bsky.social @clauslamm.bsky.social & Urs Markus Nater We analyzed over 20,000 US Top 100 song lyrics (1973–2023) to trace how stress, sentiment, and lyrical complexity reflect changing psychological states over time. Link to preprint: osf.io/c7a8r

Our Music & Health members, Anna Fekete and Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented at 2nd Meeting of the Vienna Network of Music and Cognition Research (ViNoMaRe). We enjoyed connecting with Vienna's vibrant interdisciplinary research community and engaging in inspiring exchanges!🎶

Beate-Maria Pomberger (@nhmwien.bsky.social) & Jörg Mühlhans, @markusforamitti.bsky.social explored how we perceive historical auditory stimuli. The sounds of excavated and replicated historical idiophones revealed differences in psychoacoustic properties.👂🔍 tinyurl.com/3twr3495 @fwf-at.bsky.social

Recently,a TV crew from Puls 4/JOYN visited our lab and shot scenes for a documentary about stress featuring our team members (@adreisoerner.bsky.social and @markusforamitti.bsky.social).The documentary is set to air next year, stay tuned! For now, here are some behind-the-scenes photos as a teaser.

🎙️ New Podcast! @MarkusForamitti joined Franca Schönenberger on Komplex Einfach to explore how music can reduce stress. 🎶✨ 🎧 Listen now: Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3kJlPhd... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k... Share your thoughts! 💬 #Podcast #StressRelief #MusicTherapy

Komplex Einfach

Podcast · Franca · Einfache Lösungsansätze für komplexe Probleme: Musik bei Stress, Atemübungen bei Schlafstörungen oder eine Gesichtsmassage bei Kopfschmerzen? Unsere heutige Leistungsgesellschaft br...

open.spotify.com

Excited to welcome Markus Foramitti, our newest PhD student, to the team! Markus brings a blend of psychology, musicology, and biophysiology to his work on the fascinating interactions between stress and music. #PhD #Research #MusicAndStress

Unser Teamkollege Markus Foramitti gab in "Aktuell nach 1" auf ORF 2 Einblicke in die positiven Auswirkungen von Musik auf die Gesundheit und innovative Methoden, diese zu erforschen. Hier geht's zur Sendung in der TVThek: tvthek.orf.at/profile/Aktu...