You know that talking on a Bluetooth headset, texting, and touching up your mascara mid-commute are all off-limits, but there is one thing you don’t have to fret about doing behind the wheel: cranking up the radio. Listening to music while driving doesn’t pose a dangerous distraction, according to a new study. On the contrary, participants in the study often drove even better and focused more intently on the road when the radio was playing in the background.
Researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands actually suspected that listening to the radio would make driving more hazardous, so they tested the effects of music on experienced drivers by conducting two studies: The first placed fifteen participants into driving simulators while they watched a video of someone else driving and listened to the radio (but didn’t actually “drive” themselves). At the end of a 40-minute session, researchers asked participants to recall what they had heard on the radio. They found that, overall, participants remembered little of what they’d heard, indicating that they focused much more on the road than they did on the music and often tuned it out.
The second study tested the same people while they actually drove in the simulators. Participants got to choose the type of music they listened to and drove through both low- and high-risk traffic situations. As a control, researchers also had these participants drive through the exact same traffic simulations without background music.
By comparing the drivers’ ability to focus on the road in both situations, researchers found that participants who listened to music while driving in high-risk situations effectively tuned it out to focus more carefully on driving safely. And interestingly, participants who listened to music while driving in low-risk situations actually focused even more intently on the road and drove better than they did when they didn’t have the radio on.
Study author Linda Steg, PhD, professor of environmental psychology at the University of Groningen, says that because low-complexity driving situations—think long, winding roads—can be very boring, music helps improve your performance by sharpening your focus and keeping you alert.
So should you be blasting Beyoncé every time you turn on your engine? While researchers found nothing to suggest that high-tempo music would cause problems, cranking up the volume might not be the smartest strategy in stressful driving situations, says Steg.
“People almost automatically turn it off when the situation becomes too complex,” she says, based on anecdotal observations. Participants in the study didn’t have this option, but they were able to mentally block out the music anyway.
Not all noise is created equal, though. Steg cautions against listening to talk radio while driving—and of course “listening” to a cell phone call isn’t the same as listening to music. Since these require more attention than music does, you’re less likely to devote your full attention to the road—and more likely to get into an accident. Ditto changing the station or CD while on the move.
More from Women’s Health:
“Should I Worry About Driving When I’m Tired?”
Should I Worry About Driving with a Hands-Free Cell Phone?
Should I Worry About… Driving After a Drink?