Psychological effects of music listening habits on emotional wellbeing and cognitive performance in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundMusic has long been incorporated into self-regulatory practices and rehabilitation programs. Despite growing evidence supporting its benefits, the comparative effects of routine music listening and systematic music-based therapeutic interventions on emotional and cognitive outcomes among adults have not yet been clearly established. This meta-analysis and systematic review summarized evidence on both types of exposures to explain their effects and important moderators.MethodsFollowing PRISMA 2020, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and PsycINFO were searched up to March 2026, identifying 32 eligible studies (16 on music listening/receptive listening and 16 on music-based interventions) reporting emotional (anxiety, depression, stress, and well-being) and cognitive outcomes (global cognition, memory, executive function, and attention) in adults. The risk of bias was determined using ROBINS-I and RoB 2.0, whereas certainty of evidence was determined using GRADE.ResultsDirection-of-effect tallies showed that almost no study reported worsening, with a clear predominance of emotional improvement across designs. Random-effects meta-analyses indicated small-to-moderate benefits of both listening and interventions for state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and emotional well-being, with slightly larger effects for structured programs. Music-based interventions produced small positive effects on global cognition, memory, and executive function, whereas attention effects were weaker and more heterogeneous. Meta-regression suggested that older age, clinical status, longer intervention duration, and active (versus purely receptive) formats were associated with stronger effects. The risk of bias was mostly low to moderate, and there was some evidence of small-study effects for emotional outcomes, leading to moderate overall certainty for emotional benefits and low-to-moderate certainty for cognitive benefits.ConclusionThese findings support music as a low-cost adjunct to promote emotional well-being and modestly support cognition, especially in older and clinical populations, while emphasizing the necessity of larger, rigorously controlled, mechanism-focused trials.