Dr Harry Witchel, BSMS

A new book shows that music can influence how smart you are.

Psychobiologist Dr Harry Witchel suggests that we evolved music for the same reason as birds and gibbons.

He says: “We use music to establish social territory. In this way, music can influence what you think, what you decide to buy, and even how smart you are. Music stirs such powerful emotions in us because territory is not a place — it is a state of mind.”

Dr Witchel is a senior lecturer at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), run jointly by the Universities of Sussex and Brighton.

Starting from the point that music is common to all cultures and all people, in You Are What You Hear he looks at why we need music and what it does for us. 

Combining the latest scientific research with humorous pop-culture anecdotes, he explores why music makes us feel so good - or why the wrong music makes us feel so bad.

Dr Witchel’s interdisciplinary research interests include psychobiology and human interaction, with particular focus on music, pleasure and the brain.

You Are What You Hear: How music and territory make us who we are is being launched in Brighton today (Thursday 27 January).