Listening to This Music Genre Could Increase Your Pain Tolerance, According to Science

Every so often, the world of science presents us with a little factoid that makes an everyday thing seem like it can provide a role-playing game stat boost.

According to a study from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, heavy metal music might actually increase your pain tolerance. I can already envision an RPG character tossing on some earbuds as the distorted guitars and otherworldly grasps of a black metal band provide a defensive buff.

Right off the bat, this is definitely one of those correlation-does-not-mean-causation kind of studies. And it’s a rather small sample, as the researchers only tested 122 metal fans at an annual metal festival in northern Germany called Wacken Open Air. Specifically, the fest was held in 2023.  One group was tested before the festival got going, while another was tested several days after listening to the live music. Participants had to put a hand and forearm in cold water and keep them there for as long as they could tolerate, like a weird(er) version of the Dune pain box.

The researchers tested 122 metal fans at Wacken Open Air, the enormous annual festival in northern Germany, in 2023. One group was tested before the festival really got going, while another was tested after several days of live music.

Participants put a hand and forearm into cold water and kept it there for as long as they could. For as low-tech as it is, it’s a fairly common scientific test used to help researchers gather data across a wide range of studies.

Heavy Metal Might Actually Increase Your Pain Tolerance, Study Finds

The researchers found that the post-festival metalheads were able to endure the cold for longer. Interestingly, they didn’t seem to experience the pain as any less painful. Apparently, it still hurt like heck; they were just able to withstand it, suggesting the festival may have made them more resilient.

Publishing their findings in Scientific Reports, the researchers think the effect could have something to do with the intense shared experience of live music and maybe even the release of oxytocin. They also think the music itself might play a role. Metal is, after all, a genre that embraces all the nasty, unpleasant emotions people tend to shy away from.

Maybe it provides a safe outlet to let out feelings of anger, rage, whatever negativity you’ve got in you, and it may be translated into a willingness to endure the physical discomfort.

Again, very small study, so there’s a lot more research to be done to determine whether listening to Slayer or Iron Maiden is essentially like throwing on a protective force field. Different pain tests at different music festivals should be studied. Maybe a jazz festival makes you immune to the flu?

Who knows what silly but still meaningful discoveries about the power of music are out there waiting to be found?

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