The Mozart Effect was a media myth — but it became a $2 billion industry

In October 1993, researchers Frances Rauscher and Gordon Shaw published a paper in Nature showing that college students who listened to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major scored slightly higher on a spatial reasoning test — an improvement that lasted about 15 minutes. The paper made no claim about general intelligence, and the effect was modest and temporary.

The media transformed the finding into 'listening to Mozart makes you smarter.' Book author Don Campbell published The Mozart Effect in 1997, followed by The Mozart Effect for Children and branded music collections. The Baby Einstein franchise launched a Baby Mozart video. In 1998, Georgia Governor Zell Miller proposed $105,000 per year to give every newborn in the state a classical music CD.

Replication studies consistently failed to confirm the effect. A 1999 meta-analysis found the enhancement was small and attributable to enjoyment arousal rather than anything specific to Mozart. A 2010 meta-analysis of 39 studies found 'little evidence' and strong publication bias. The Mozart Effect is now widely considered a myth — ranked #6 in 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology.