The evolutionary function of group singing - belonging as a way to survive
Why does singing with others feel so good?
From ancient ceremonies to modern community choirs, the drive to sing and make music together is a core human trait, which isn't just cultural tradition. It is a powerful evolutionary feature that helped our ancestors survive and thrive, remaining essential to our wellbeing today.
Science suggests that collective singing is one of humanity's most effective tools for social cohesion but why should this be so? The answer lies in our long dependence on other humans to fully mature, relying on a complex web of socially transmitted signals to learn language, culture and other necessary survival skills. This means that belonging to a social group is an integral part of human development and therefore survival. Jaak Panksepp's research in affective neuroscience demonstrates this by showing that the same brain systems process both physical and mental (social/emotional) pain, specifically the distress of social loss or separation, providing us with powerful evidence for the function of group singing to promote social bonding and correspondingly our survival.
From One-on-One to Group Bonding
In our primate relatives, social relationships are built and maintained through physical grooming. This intimate, one-on-one activity triggers the release of feel-good endorphins, the body's natural feel-good agents. However, as early human groups grew larger, spending hours grooming one another became impractical. We needed a new, more efficient way to bond dozens, or even hundreds of people simultaneously.
The answer theorised by evolutionary psychologists like Professor Robin Dunbar, was collective vocalisation. Singing provided a way to strengthen social ties across the entire group at once, which in turn supported the survival of the whole group.
The Physiology of Shared Harmony
The benefits of singing together are not purely psychological they manifest in verifiable physiological changes:
Increased Endorphins: Research confirms that group singing elevates the body's endorphin levels (often measured via increased pain threshold, a scientific proxy for endorphin release). This is what creates that profound, shared sense of euphoria and connectedness experienced during and after singing together.
Synchronisation of heart rate variability and breathing: When we sing in synchrony, heart rate variability between participants (the subtle variation in time between heart beats over time) synchronise and breathing patterns tend to converge. This physiological mirroring is deeply unifying leading to a palpable sense of trust and "oneness" with fellow singers.
So when you sing with your community you are engaging in an ancient, finely tuned system designed to overcome stress and maintain peaceful, cooperative group living.
The Takeaway
In our fast-paced world, the need for robust social support is as critical as ever. Group singing doesn't just offer an opportunity for artistic expression or a nice, fun activity - it delivers a dose of biologically mandated community connection, which is hard wired into our biological functioning to ensure survival. Put simply, we sing to belong and belonging means survival.
It rapidly fosters social closeness, calms us down and brings us pleasure, reinforcing the cooperative instincts that allowed humans to build complex societies. So, the next time you are looking for a measurable boost to your physical, mental and social health, remember that you are biologically built to thrive in harmony.
I wonder what the state of the world would be if our leaders got together and sang…
References
Dunbar, R. I. M. (2012). The ultimate function of music is to bond the group. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(5), 899-903.
Weinstein, D., Launay, J., Pearce, E., Dunbar, R., & Stewart, L. (2016). Singing and social bonding: Changes in connectivity and pain threshold as a function of group size. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(2), 152–158.
Savage, P. E., Brown, S., Yamauchi, J., Hamaguchi, K., & Tarr, B. (2020). Music as a coevolved system for social bonding. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e136.
Dunbar, R. I. M., Kaskatis, K., Macdonald, I., & Barra, V. (2012). Performance of music elevates pain threshold and positive affect: Implications for the evolutionary function of music. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(5), 787–798.
