misleading

Question

After reading the article, the claim that clubbing is good for your health according to neuroscientists is misleading, in my opinion. The Apple news article gives a breakdown of a documentary, "We Become One, which interviews neuroscientists about flow state and inter-brainsynchrony during dancing and feeling vibrations in the music. While this phenomenon is real and it has shown that dancing and being in a group do help reduce stress, improve mood, and help with social bonding (Bittman et al., 2003; Tarr et al., 2016), there is no hard evidence that clubbing itself helps. For the most part, when you think of clubbing, and the reality of it is loud music, late nights, drugs, and alcohol, these things are proven to not be beneficial for your health in any way. The documentary takes clubbing as a setting for positive effects, but this exaggerates what it is actually like. While dancing and shared music experiences can benefit your mental wellbeing, claiming that clubbing itself are good for health is quite misleading.

Answer 1

This fact-check makes a good point, but it is also a bit oversimplified. Research shows that dancing and group movement can reduce stress, improve mood, and increase social bonding. For example, studies have found that dance can significantly improve mental health and even reduce symptoms of depression (The University of Sydney). Other research also shows that dance helps release chemicals in the brain that improve mood and reduce stress (Harvard Medical School).

However, these benefits come from the activity itself (dancing and social interaction), not necessarily from clubbing as a whole. The fact check argues that clubbing is unhealthy because of things like alcohol, loud music, and late nights. While those can be negative, they are not always part of every experience and are not what the scientific studies are actually measuring. Everyone’s experience is different.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/dancing-brain

https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2024/02/12/dancing-may-be-better-than-other-exercise-for-improving-mental-h.html

Answer 2

I appreciate this response and the fact that it explores both sides of the topic and questions what the source article argues. In my research I was reminded of the "Blue Zone" communities that are categorized by the longevity and healthy lifestyles of their population. According to a Harvard article, the blue zones follow 9 general rules that we observe as a pattern between all of these communities. The 9 rules describe the things that scientists say are actively contributing to longevity in all of the regions and a few of those rules apply to this argument: 

- Following a daily lifestyle that encourages natural, vigorous movement.

- Developing supportive social networks and lifelong friendships.

- Adopting some form of daily stress relief

These rules are followed as a general pattern by many of the longest living communities in the world even if we don't think of them as applying to health as directly as something like sleep or diet. That being said, this article also admits "By itself, the Blue Zone theory is not regarded as strong science, but the Power 9 behaviors are still broadly consistent with what we understand about how diet, exercise, social connections, and emotional well-being affect health and longevity."(Dr. Walter Willett). Additionally, the article highlights that not all blue zones follow all rules equally, but rather these are the patterns we see across all the zones to some extent. To me this signals that clubbing is beneficial to the body because of the natural, vigorous movement and the fact that it promotes a healthy social life in the process. Also we have to take into account that going out, partying, clubbing, socializing in general is a regular form of stress relief for many people even if it's not on the daily. Together, these show that going out can be beneficial to both your mental and physical health albeit in moderation. One other final note from this article is that one of the other 9 rules that we see across blue zones is a lack of alcohol consumption. Most groups drink almost no alcohol and those that do tend to stick to red wine. This can be seen as a drawback of clubbing and party culture because it often if not always promotes moderate to heavy drinking and glorifies alcohol as a mean of profit for the hosting establishments.