No more sad songs about your ex. Source: ThinkStock

Professor Warren Brodsky, the director of music psychology in the Department of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, wrote in a new book about the connection between music, emotion, and driving.

“The car is the only place in the world you can die just because you’re listening to the wrong kind of music,” Brodsky told the news site Haaretz.

It’s not the genre Brooksy is talking about either, but rather the driver’s emotional connection to the music playing.

When a song comes on that a driver is emotionally connected with, they are distracted from the road. A song that inspires happiness, sadness, nostalgia or even simply high-energy toe-tapping can cause a driver to become unfocused from the road. Distracted driving is a major threat on the nation’s roads. In fact, it’s one of the top five killers behind speed, intoxication and fatigue.

Brodsky’s research shows that drivers should avoid music that brings forward extremely negative or positive emotions, and that a quick change in music can help change the emotional state of an agitated driver. He even went as far as to say that he envisioned a system in cars that would automatically change a song if sensors indicated an intense emotional reaction to help reduce car accidents.

Find out about the role music plays in our brains, from childhood to our moods as adults.