[16] Researchers who have studied and written about the phenomenon include Theodor Reik,[17] Sean Bennett,[18] Oliver Sacks,[1] Daniel Levitin,[19] James Kellaris,[20] Philip Beaman,[21] Vicky Williamson,[22] Diana Deutsch,[23] and, in a more theoretical perspective, Peter Szendy,[24] along with many more.
The phenomenon is distinct from palinacousis, a rare medical condition caused by damage to the temporal lobe of the brain that results in auditory hallucinations.
[27] In 2010, published data in the British Journal of Psychology directly addressed the subject, and its results support earlier claims that earworms are usually 15 to 30 seconds in length and are more common in those with an interest in music.
[11] Scientists at Western Washington University found that engaging working memory in moderately difficult tasks such as anagrams, puzzles or reading was an effective way of stopping earworms and of reducing their recurrence.
[28] Another publication points out that melodic music has a tendency to demonstrate repeating rhythm which may lead to endless repetition, unless a climax can be achieved to break the cycle.
[34] Jean Harris, who murdered Herman Tarnower, was obsessed with the song "Put the Blame on Mame" by Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher, which she first heard in the film Gilda (1946).
In 1943 Henry Kuttner published the short story "Nothing but Gingerbread Left" about a song engineered to damage the Nazi war effort, culminating in Adolf Hitler being unable to continue a speech.
As the storyteller, Harry Purvis, explains, Lister theorized that a great melody "made its impression on the mind because it fitted in with the fundamental electrical rhythms going on in the brain."
[37] In Fritz Leiber's Hugo Award-nominated short story "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" (1959), the title describes a rhythmic drumbeat so powerful that it rapidly spreads to all areas of human culture, until a counter-rhythm is developed that acts as an antidote.
In The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part there is a scene in which most of the film's characters are subjected to "Catchy Song" and all except Lucy dance to it, while simultaneously the denizens of Harmony Town sing it to Emmet and Rex.
The Uruguayan military builds a squadron of pilotless aircraft armed with phonographs playing a highly amplified recording of the earworm, and conquers the entire world by reducing the citizens of all nations to mindless insanity.
"[41] In 2014, musician Emperor X wrote a deliberately catchy song titled 10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories (Don't Change Color, Kitty) in reference to the "ray cat" idea in nuclear semiotics, attempting to embed a warning message in folklore that would still be remembered in 10,000 years' time.
Negishi and Sekiguchi found that some of the obsessive-compulsive traits, such as intrusive thoughts, played a role in experiencing earworms while compulsive washing did not.
[45] Help is the category which determines the beneficial and constructive aspects to the INMI experiences, which could potentially reflect similarities in the characteristics of unfocused music listing and task-unrelated thought.