Does it make you smarter? Does it reduce crime? We investigate the latest scientific research to discover the actual benefits of listening to classical music.

It all started with the Mozart Effect. In 1993, a group of researchers at the University of California published a study in which they assessed the effects of listening to a Mozart sonata before taking a spatial reasoning test. They invited a group of college students to participate. Some were asked to listen to the Sonata for Two Pianos in D, others listened to a relaxation tape, while the rest sat in silence. Next, they all took the test.

The authors of the resulting article, which appeared in interdisciplinary science journal Nature, were pleased to report that the Mozart group performed better than the others. Such an interesting finding was certainly worthy of a journal article. However, when the news made its way to the popular media, imaginations began to run wild.

The headlines declared, “Mozart makes you smart” – a slight stretch of the truth, perhaps, but a harmless enough claim. Then things started to get out of hand. Snippets of the research paper were displayed in record stores alongside Mozart box-sets. The opinion that...