ASMR: what is it? The power of hearing over the mind

It went viral on the web, but now it is also on TV and in the laboratory. This is ASMR, the state of relaxation and well-being that some people feel when they hear sounds such as whispers and rustling.

Sounds can actually affect us on a physiological, behavioral and psychological level. But how? Why do some sounds stimulate pleasant and positive sensations in us, while others arouse unpleasant and negative sensations?

What does ASMR mean?

The acronym ASMR stands for Response of the autonomic sensory meridians, “autonomous meridian sensory response”, a definition that indicates the sensation of slight tingling in different parts of the body and of relaxed well-being that some people experience in response to certain auditory stimuli.

Pleasant sounds such as voices that whisper words, nails that touch materials, hands that caress objects and much more, all united by the ability to arouse in those who listen to them a mental and physical relaxation. To the point that many even use it to sleep.

Precisely because it is able to stimulate pleasure and release tension, ASMR is also defined “brain orgasm” or “brain massage”.

Who invented ASMR?

The first online communities dedicated to ASMR were born in 2010, when more and more people start using these videos to relax and Jennifer Allen first coined the term.

They are also often included in the ASMR phenomenon performances by the American painter Bob Ross, broadcast on television in the 1980s. In hindsight, this is a case of ASMR ante litteram: the videos in question concern painting sessions recorded inside a studio with a dark atmosphere, in which the camera focuses exclusively on Ross’ voice and the artistic tools he used. The absence of background music, with the exception of the theme song and the closing titles, means that the only auditory stimuli come from Bob Ross’s reassuring tone and the sounds of the brush on the canvas.

ASMR is now an extremely prolific trend on various social platforms: from YouTubewhere the “asmrtista” – YouTubers specialized in the production of these audio-visual stimuli – reach millions of views, from Twitch to TikTok. However, it tends to expand increasingly even outside the web. A beer brand took inspiration from ASMR videos to create a TV commercial which he launched during halftime of the 2019 SuperBowl, the most watched sporting event in the United States.

Furthermore, recently, attempts have been made to exploit this technique to alleviate the symptoms of conditions such asanxiety and the depression.

But what is behind this strange phenomenon?

The science of ASMR

In 2015, for the first time, a study describes the phenomenon as common to a large group of individuals. The physiological and psychological effects of ASMR have recently been studied and started to speculate that they can have beneficial effects in people suffering from disorders such as anxiety and depression.

However, scientific studies on ASMR are still few and inconclusive. It also exists a site which collects the history and theories of ASMR and which hypothesizes a close connection between the sounds that arouse ASMR and the displays of affection and care of parents towards children in the first years of life. This parallelism could be an explanation of the state of well-being that people experience and seek in ASMR videos: a return to childhood experience to be pampered and reassured by their parents.

Why are ASMR videos relaxing?

On a physiological levelSounds have been shown to regulate hormone secretions, breathing, heartbeat, and even brain waves. Our self-regulation mechanism, in fact, ensures that the entire organism is harmonized with what is perceived by hearing.

A relaxing sound can decrease the heart rate, make breathing less labored, lower body temperature and stimulate the release of endorphins. For excited and loud sounds – a drill or an alarm in action – the opposite applies, however: the heartbeat accelerates, breathing becomes labored and we tend to get agitated more easily.

This is nothing new sounds can immediately influence ours too actions. Conditioning mechanisms are activated in humans, so the perception of a certain sound is associated with a positive or negative sensation.

The voices of your boss and your partner are arousing physiological reactions and emotions completely different in us. Usually, human beings relax and calm down when they hear birds singing, while they freeze or tend to move away when they hear a sudden, loud noise. The “fight-flight” reaction that follows loud sounds belongs to our evolutionary history and helps the organism react to a perceived threat.

Based on this data, specialists from different disciplines, including psychologists and neuromarketing experts, began to study the association between certain sounds and consumption behaviors of people. For example, listening to catchy songs capable of creating a positive atmosphere increases the time spent in the store and encourages the propensity to purchase.

Sounds and psyche

The sound-psyche association is so complex that it is the subject of a specific discipline, called psychoacousticsa branch of psychology that studies the subjective perception of sounds in humans. The most obvious example is represented by music: each of us has a series of «heart songs», which have the power to evoke the past and bring to mind even very distant sensations and memories. Musical pieces based on “major” keys stimulate energy or joy in us, while songs in minor keys make us more reflective.

At a cognitive levelsounds and music are capable of improve attention skills and concentration, stimulate attention and encourage creativity. These positive effects, due to the release of dopaminethey occur if our mind receives one sound stimulus at a time.

If, however, there are too many sound stimuli, our cognitive system must extrapolate the one of interest from the whole and performance in terms of attention and concentration inevitably drops. In fact, we struggle to study in chaotic environments or have difficulty listening to two people speaking at the same time.

How many types of ASMR are there?

ASMR is a vast universe made up of numerous categories, each characterized by specific triggers designed to induce a feeling of relaxation and pleasure in video viewers.

Categories of ASMR

Here are some of the Most common types of ASMR:

• touching: It relies on tapping fingers or objects on various surfaces
• brushing: involves using objects to produce rubbing and rubbing sounds
• caress: involves movements that reproduce the action of caressing
• scratch: the asmrtist scratches the surface of objects with his nails
• cuppingbased on the noise produced by cupped hands or similar instruments placed and moved near the microphone
• keyboard: exploits the noise of the keys pressed on a keyboard
• rippled: focuses on the rustling produced by wrinkled packages or wrapping
• whispering: It is based on the whispering technique to create a light and relaxing experience
• spoken softly: the asmrtist speaks softly, but without whispering
• we don’t talk: contents without human voices, but full of triggers produced by the noises of objects or environments
• mouth sounds: the asmrtist makes sounds with his mouth, including smacking kisses
• imperceptible: a human voice is heard, but it is not possible to understand the words it speaks
• eat: the trigger comes from the sounds of food and eating
• click of the tongue: consists of clicking the tongue
• touch/touch your face: the asmrtist pretends to touch the user, moving his hands near the camera and microphone
• hand movements: the asmrtist moves his hands to relax the spectators
• binaural: involves the use of a microphone that allows differentiation of sound between the left and right channels of the headphones
• light: involves the use of light or a flashlight in the video
• statements: the asmrtist pretends to talk to the user, pronouncing positive and motivational phrases
• Well done: the asmrtist showers compliments on viewers
• words: consists of the repetition of one or more words
• approach: the asmrtist records himself with his face very close to the camera, so that only his face is framed
• role play: involves the simulation of situations and characters through a role-playing game.

Which Asmr are you?

Wondering if you’re susceptible to ASMR? As witnessed by online communities (on Reddit there are several), there are many variations of video and audio that you might like. The effect is different for everyone and many simply don’t understand the ASMR phenomenon.

An interesting video to understand the potential of audio and the effects on the brain Thismade with binaural microphones, which – as we have seen – reproduce the three-dimensionality of the sound perceived by the two ears. In Italy, one of the most viewed asmrtists on YouTube is Chiara ASMR, while in the USA it is Gentle Whispering ASMR, with over one million subscribers to the channel.

Recently the theme was also covered in an episode of docuseries Follow this on Netflix, where a BuzzFeed USA journalist interviews some asmrtists and experiences ASMR live.