Does listening to Mozart make you smarter?

No, not in any lasting way. The famous "Mozart effect" comes from a 1993 study in which college students did slightly better on spatial puzzles, like paper folding, for about 15 minutes after hearing a Mozart sonata. The study never measured general intelligence, and later research found that any small boost comes from being in a good, energized mood, not from Mozart.

The story is a lesson in how science gets stretched. The original study involved 36 college students. The press turned it into "Mozart makes you smart", supposedly especially for babies. A "Baby Mozart" video was made, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia proposed spending $105,000 a year to give every newborn in the state a classical music CD. He even played legislators Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and asked, "Now, don't you feel smarter already?"

Then the replications came in. A 1999 analysis found the effect small and limited to one kind of task, explained by enjoyment and arousal. In one study, a Stephen King story worked just as well as Mozart, but only for people who enjoyed it. A 2010 analysis of 39 studies found little evidence of any effect. Today many psychologists count it among the great myths of popular psychology.